Themed collection 2015 most accessed Green Chemistry articles

During decarboxylation and decarbonylation of biomass the activity of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts is mainly determined by temperature not by its nature; enzymes display higher activity.

Formulated products contain some components that need to be replaced because of identified or suspected negative effects on health or the environment.

Opportunities for green chemistry in the P cycle.

Unprecedented transformations have been developed over the last years to convert amines to formamides, formamidines and methylamines, in the presence of CO₂ as a reagent. These emerging technologies are reviewed in this perspective and the opportunities and challenges facing the practical use of CO₂ in the production of nitrogen molecules are discussed.

Fabrication of silica nanosphere based organic–inorganic hybrid materials and their applications in the field of catalysis.

The conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂), an abundant renewable carbon reagent, into chemicals of academic and industrial interest is of imminent importance to create a higher degree of sustainability in chemical processing and production.

The implementation of Life Cycle Assessment and related methods in green chemical process and synthesis design strongly supports the development of greener concepts on the basis of deep and profound insights into the dependences between the selection of compounds and process parameters and the resulting environmental impacts.

The polyol synthesis of nanoparticles is reviewed, including metals, oxides, main-group elements and recent strategies to expand the method's limits.

This review describes an overview on much of the recent work in catalytic methanation of CO₂ and its future prospects.

This review presents non-heme iron catalyzed epoxidations and aziridinations of terminal alkenes with respect to atom economy and sustainability.

This review highlights the alkali roasting of aluminium, chromium and titanium minerals as an alternative to mitigate the environmental pressure associated with their mineral processing.

This review highlights the recent and prolific progress made in the use of iron–phosphine based catalysts in selective reductions including enantioselective hydrogenation.

Electrocatalysis for carbon dioxide conversion into methanol.

Overview of research in critical and precious metal recovery using biosorption, application to real-life wastes and uses of the metal-loaded materials.

In this article, we analyse materials and techniques used in OLED manufacturing in terms of sustainability and highlight upcoming trends which are supposed to further enhance this technologies sustainability.

The synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and carbon dioxide using sustainable metal-based catalysts is critically reviewed.

Go bio! We assess the biobased productions of three important bulk chemicals: acrylic acid, adipic acid and ε-caprolactam. These are the key monomers for high-end polymers and are all produced globally in excess of two million metric tons per year.

This review presents highlights in the recent advances and strategies for the catalytic production of glucose from lignocellulosic biomass over various homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts.

This article reviews the recent progress in designing compatible ionic liquid–enzymatic systems for biomass pretreatment and hydrolysis as a step in the production of biofuels and -chemicals from lignocellulosic polysaccharides.

The review summarizes recent oxidation and hydrogenation strategies catalyzed by g-C₃N₄ based systems.

Micellar catalysis is nowadays a well established approach to convert traditional catalytic reactions commonly run in organic solvents into more efficient, selective, recyclable green catalytic reactions.

The fixation of CO₂ into cyclic carbonates using the emerging ionic liquid (IL) technology is reviewed from a multi-scale viewpoint.

This review is to discuss and evaluate the nanoporous catalysts including functionalized resins, metal oxides, carbons, mesoporous silicas, polydivinylbenzene, and zeolites used in the biomass transformation.

The present review comprises recent advances on supported polyoxometalates for biodiesel synthesis.

This review covers general chemical routes used to convert cellulosic biomass into useful platform chemicals with specific focus on aqueous-based processing.

Polysaccharides are ideal templates for greening the synthesis of metal oxides by biotemplating and bio-replication.

A highly efficient green protocol for palladium acetate-catalysed ligand-free Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions in neat ‘water extract of banana (WEB)’ was developed. Suzuki–Miyaura reaction proceeds in WEB at very short reaction times under ‘ligand/external base/external promoters/organic medium’ free conditions.

Sustainable societies require the development of engineered hybrid materials. Bio-inspired mineralization of the wood cell wall architecture with calcium carbonate offers a green alternative to conventional fire-retardant systems.

One-pot, one-substrate, triangular chemoenzymatic cascades featuring transaminase (TAm) and norcoclaurine synthase (NCS) enables the formation of (S)-benzylisoquinoline and (S)-tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids.

Changing the cation of an ionic liquid was shown to have a significant effect on lignin solubility, with interaction of aromatic cations with the solute being significant. The effect of the anion on lignin solubility was negligible, above a minimum hydrogen bond basicity.

Water and methanol affect the acid-catalysis conversion and the hydrogenation of the biomass derived furans via very different ways.

Models for microalgae hydrothermal liquefaction were developed from conversion of Nannochloropsis cultivated to varying biochemical composition and fatty acid content.

Selective and controllable removal of methoxy groups in liquid hot water without ring hydration from lignin model compounds. Description of reaction routes and kinetics.

A cellulose sponge with properties of superhydrophilicity and under-water superoleophobicity gives 99.94% separation efficiency in oil–water emulsion separation.

A unified metrics toolkit has been developed to evaluate sustainability of reactions, encompassing a comprehensive and holistic range of criteria for measuring how green a reaction is, covering quantitative and qualitative criteria both upstream and downstream of the reaction itself.

The Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) method allows the derivation of a model that can be used for classification of existing or new production processes for silver nanoparticles in preference-ordered classes on the basis of the principles of green chemistry.

We elucidate the effect of residual lignin on the interfacial, physical and mechanical properties of lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) and respective nanopapers.

Biomass-derived porous carbon material with sulfur and nitrogen dual-doping exhibits great potential for energy storage devices.

One step conversion of lignin from intact biomass to two phenol products, improving access to aromatics and fuels.

The cost of ionic liquids (ILs) is a barrier to utilization in cellulosic biorefinery pretreatment. Our low-cost [HSO₄]⁻ ILs are nearly as efficient as standard [OAc] options.

Salts as linker sources allow the preparation of high-quality carboxylate-based MOFs under unprecedented sustainable conditions: room temperature and water as the sole solvent.

A recycling process for lamp phosphor waste has been developed based on the selective dissolution and revalorization of the valuable red lamp phosphor Y₂O₃:Eu³⁺ in the functionalized ionic liquid [Hbet][Tf₂N].

Catalytic depolymerisation of lignins with different β-O-4 linkage percentages affected both the yield and the nature of aromatic monomeric products.

One of the major challenges associated with algal biofuels production in a biorefinery-type setting is improving biomass utilization in its entirety, increasing the process energetic yields and providing economically viable and scalable co-product concepts.

The initial evaluation of the hazard potential of MTO shows that it causes strong short-term (eco)toxicological effects and offers preliminary indications of its genotoxic potential.

A comprehensive investigation into the limitations, reactivity and chemical decomposition mechanisms of ionic liquid–carbohydrate mixtures.

It's definitely not water! The complete dissolution of lignin in pure liquid ammonia opens opportunities for converting this abundant yet stubborn biopolymer to useful aromatics under moderate conditions.

The diverse reactivity of 5-hydroxymethylfural (HMF) in Pd/C-catalyzed reactions is described with emphasis on the role of additives that affect selectivity.

Epoxides derived from 1,4-cyclohexadiene (CHD), the latter produced from renewable resources via self-metathesis of plant oil derivatives, are applied as key substrates in ring-opening copolymerizations to produce aliphatic polycarbonates and polyesters.

Functionalized porous polyimides were used as supports for palladium complexes leading to efficient catalysts for the Suzuki cross-coupling of water.

Analysis of the selective transformation of the β–β linkage in Kraft lignin using readily accessible 2D HSQC NMR protocols.