Crude glycerol from biodiesel production is a biobased material capable of co-producing biofuels and chemicals. This study aimed to develop a line of Ni catalysts supported on cerium–magnesium (Ce–Mg) to improve the process efficiency of glycerol hydrogenolysis for ethanol and 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO). Results showed that catalytic activity was greatly improved by changing the preparation meth...

This account describes our quest for controlling the reactivity of organoiron species, and developing an iron catalyst that can efficiently activate a C–H bond substrate possessing directing group, followed by reaction with nucleophiles (magnesium, zinc, boron, or aluminum reagents), electrophiles (alkyl halides, alkanol derivatives, allyl ethers, alkenes, alkynes, chloroamines), another (heter...

We report the influence of different polymer purification procedures on the photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells formed from binary blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and fullerenes. Selective Soxhlet extractions and metal scavenging agents were used to remove residual monomer, magnesium salt by-products and catalyst from high-weight P3HT (Mw 121 kg/mol, PDI 1.8, RR ...

Commercial high-amylose com, ordinary com and potato starches 'were fully acetyl"ted by reacting the starches at 123°C for 5 h in fourfold quantities of acetic anhydride to which 11 010 (w;'w 5t"rch) of sodium hydroxide catalyst had been added as 50 010 aqueous solution. Intrinsic viscosities of the starches regenerated from their esters 'were slightly lower than the 'values for the correspondi...

For the first time, renewable high density aviation fuels were synthesized at high overall yield (95.6%) by the Guerbet reaction of cyclopentanol which can be derived from lignocellulose, followed by the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). The solvent-free Guerbet reaction of cyclopentanol was carried out under the co-catalysis of solid bases and Raney metals. Among the investigated catalyst systems, the...

A series of zinc(II) and magnesium(II) alkoxides based upon a beta-diiminate ligand framework has been prepared. [(BDI-1)ZnO(i)Pr](2) [(BDI-1) = 2-((2,6-diisopropylphenyl)amido)-4-((2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imino)-2-pentene] exhibited the highest activity and stereoselectivity of the zinc complexes studied for the polymerization of rac- and meso-lactide to poly(lactic acid) (PLA). [(BDI-1)ZnO(i)()...

Aqueous microdroplets (<1.3 µm in diameter on average) containing 15 mM d-ribose, 15 mM phosphoric acid, and 5 mM of a nucleobase (uracil, adenine, cytosine, or hypoxanthine) are electrosprayed from a capillary at +5 kV into a mass spectrometer at room temperature and 1 atm pressure with 3 mM divalent magnesium ion (Mg2+) as a catalyst. Mass spectra show the formation of ribonucleosides that co...

Tar removal from biomass gasification gas is a crucial problem in applying syngas from biomass for its downstream applications. Catalytic biomass gasification has given promising results for tar cracking. A few research groups have investigated the use of olivine for tar cracking [2,3,4,7,8,9,10]. The presence of oxides of iron and magnesium in the mineral olivine give it the ability to crack h...

The waste tyres represent a source of energy and valuable hydrocarbon products. Waste tyres were pyrolysed catalytically in a batch reactor under atmospheric pressure. The effects of basic catalysts (MgO and CaCO3) were studied on the pyrolysis products. The distribution ratio of gas, liquid and char with MgO and CaCO3 were 24.4:39.8:35.8 wt % and 32.5:32.2:35.2 wt % respectively at 350°C for 2...

Fluorine-doped carbon nanotubes were synthesized using cobalt and silver co-catalyst on magnesium oxide support and their morphological features studied using Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. The morphological images showed amorphous multiwall nanotubes with s...