Limonite, a low-cost iron ore, was investigated as a potential hydrotreatment catalyst for kraft lignin without the use of an external solvent (batch reactor, initial H2 pressure of 100 bar, 4 h). The best results were obtained at 450 °C resulting in 34 wt % of liquefied kraft lignin (lignin oil) on lignin intake. The composition of the lignin oil was determined in detail (elemental composition...

Novel multi-SO3H functionalized strong Brønsted acidic ionic liquid coated magnetite nanoparticles have been prepared and applied as catalyst for the synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted imidazoles. The results showed that a novel catalyst was very efficient for the reaction and could be magnetically separated and reused at least 6 times with less reduction in its catalytic activity. Operational s...

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel engines consisting of the alkyl monoesters of fatty acids from vegetable oils or animal fats. Most of the biodiesel that is currently made uses soybean oil, methanol, and an alkaline catalyst. The high value of soybean oil as a food product makes production of a cost–effective fuel very challenging. However, there are large amounts of low–cost oils an...

1,3-Dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DBH), as a cheap and commercially available reagent, is efficiently able to catalyze the synthesis of polyhydroquinoline derivatives and 12-aryl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydro[a] xanthene-11-ones via one-pot multi-component reactions. This novel synthetic method has the advantages of low cost and availability of the catalyst, short reaction times, high to excellent yiel...

There were various problems in the determination of oil acid value of the national standard method, and this paper developed a low cost, simple and effective way to determine the acid value of oil and grease. Furthermore, the esterification of high acid Euphorbia lathyris L. oil (ELO) with methanol could be efficiently catalyzed by hydrochloric acid to produce biodiesel, and the influencing fac...

Bifunctional catalysis concerns the use of low molecular weight, structurally defined molecules possessing two distinct functional groups to bring about new reactivity and/or selectivity in a reaction of interest. The reactions are typically polar addition reactions of pronucleophiles and electrophiles where, ideally, simple low-cost starting materials are converted into high-value, stereochemi...

Lead chalcogenide nanostructures are good potential candidates for applications in multiexciton solar cells, infrared photodetectors, and electroluminescence devices. Here we report the synthesis and electrical measurements of hyperbranched PbSe nanowire networks. Hyperbranched PbSe nanowire networks are synthesized via a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. The branching is induced by continuou...

Direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) are a type of electrochemical energy conversion device that directly Convert the chemical energy stored in a liquid alcohol fuel, commonly methanol and ethanol, and also ethylene glycol, or npropanol, to electricity. Because of their simplicity, high energy density, instantaneous recharging, and presumably long life, DAFCs have been identified as the most promi...

Research is ongoing at Stanford University on the catalytic decomposition of nitrous oxide as an environmentally friendly monopropellant for propulsion and power applications. Two meso-scale planar monopropellant thrusters have been successfully tested: one made of monolithic silicon carbide utilizing a commercially supplied catalyst, and the other made of Hastelloy-X ® utilizing a rhodium base...

palladium nanoparticles supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (pd/mwcnts) have been synthesized using a modified polyol reduction method and its performance in methanol oxidation reactions has evaluated. the morphology of palladium on mwcnts was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (sem) and transmission electron microscopy (tem). the catalytic performance of synthesized catalyst ...