Themed collection Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Emerging Investigators

Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board Chair Klavs Jensen introduces the 2019 Emerging Investigators issue.

This minireview offers an up-to-date overview of enabling tools for biphasic liquid–liquid reactions in flow.

HFIP has developed immense importance in the C–H functionalization methodology. Both the reactivity and selectivity have been vastly improved using HFIP whose H-bonding to the substrate facilitates and accelerates C–H activation. This review summarizes the chronological development of the evolution of HFIP in C–H activation along with important mechanistic details.

This review will highlight the opportunities that exist in the localization of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies within an African context.

This review provides an overview of the current understanding of structure–catalytic properties of open-metal sites in metal organic framework materials.

Origins of solvent-induced enhancement in catalytic reactivity and product selectivity are discussed with computational methods to study them.

Passive NO_x adsorbers as new components to complement SCR catalysts to control cold-start NO_x emissions efficiently.

An in situ Raman spectroscopic kinetic study of the glucose mutarotation reaction in the presence of Lewis acids is presented herein. The effect of Lewis acids on humin formation reactions is also discussed.

Macroporous microbeads are synthesized by microfluidic production of silica-loaded polymeric microdroplets followed by porogen removal via selective etching.

A new method to characterise the evolution of surface sites during metal-supported catalyst preparation has been developed, which exploits NMR relaxation times and their sensitivity to paramagnetic ions.

Catalytic conversion of furfural to 2-pentanol over Co–Cu/Al₂O₃ catalysts.

The jet-mixing reactor can continuously produce monodisperse silver nanoparticles using limited amounts of capping agent.

The RAFT copolymerization of oppositely-charged monomers is studied to optimize the composition of polyampholytes with an UCST behaviour and nonfouling properties.

Structured zeolite/SiC foam catalysts provide alternative solutions to mass and heat transfer limited chemical transformations for process intensification, exemplified by cracking reactions.

A topological model for the adsorption of PAHs is derived based on an analogy with the formation enthalpies of metal complexes.

The kinetics-assisted method is simple yet effective in discriminating Ru edge atoms as the dominant active sites for the reaction.

Development of 3D printed stainless steel reactors for the oxidation of Grignard reagents in continuous flow.

Microkinetic modeling using energies from DFT and scaling relations to reveal roles of water in aqueous phase reforming of glycerol.

Mononuclear zeolite-anchored Rh(CO)₂ complexes do not facilitate NO reduction with CO and groups of rhodium atoms are required to initiate and sustain NO/CO catalytic transformations.

The pyrolysate composition, product time evolution and kinetics of fast co-pyrolysis of protein, carbohydrate and lipid surrogates are investigated to unravel the interactions among microalgae components.

First unbiased transition path sampling study of a glycosynthase enzyme reveals single-step mechanism with oxocarbenium-like transition state.

An immobilized triphenylphosphine scaffold was prepared by precipitation polymerization and functionalized to afford a cost-effective source of solid-supported tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0).

A continuous flow platform has been developed that integrates reactive distillation with modern flow reactor technology.

Large scale quantum mechanical simulation systematically reveals length scales over which electronically driven interactions occur at enzyme active sites.

This work presents a detailed investigation into the isomerization and decomposition of HONO and HNO₂.

Aqueous ammonia was applied as the ammonia source in the continuous amination of aromatic and heteroaromatic halides assisted by a Teflon AF-2400 tube-in-tube reactor to generate densely substituted aryl/heteroaryl amines in high yields.

A Diels–Alder reaction employing terpenes for rapid synthesis of monomer libraries under flow conditions is presented.

Different numbered-up capillary microreactor systems were assembled with commercially available parts for homogeneous processes with significant variation of fluid properties (e.g., free radical polymerization), and statistical analysis was performed to reveal its flow distribution performance.

Scaling-up phase-transfer catalysis in flow.