Themed collection 2024 Green Chemistry Reviews

The Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) was founded in 2013 to host a community of practice around green chemistry in higher education. 10 years later, the GCC empowers a worldwide community to use chemistry tools to create a sustainable planet.

Biodiesel, known as a renewable fuel, is an environmentally friendly energy source derived from animal and vegetable oils, as well as recycled oil.

This perspective provides the design, stability and unique properties regarding ionic liquid-stabilized metal oxoclusters and their application in catalysis, and also illustrates the future development of ionic liquid-stabilized metal oxoclusters.

This perspective showcases recent advances in amino acid synthesis from biomass through the chemocatalytic method.

To meet EU CO₂ emission targets, we need to replace most fossil-derived plastics with renewable alternatives. To stop endless pollution by accumulating non degradable plastics we need future plastics to be closed-loop recyclable and/or biodegradable.

Upcycling silicon from waste solar panels into Li-ion batteries as anodes is a potential solution to handle the ever-growing solar waste.

This manuscript provides basic knowledge regarding nitrogen-doped carbon materials and its application in the oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and discusses the future development of nitrogen-doped carbon materials.

This perspective highlights recent advances and provides an outlook on future developments in the first-row transition metal catalysed enantioconvergent radical Suzuki–Miyaura C(sp³)−C coupling of racemic alkyl halides.

Some of the latest technological developments involving chemistry in water are discussed.

The strategic installation of the “magic methyl” group has become highly desirable for drug discovery. This review summarized the recent photochemical and electrochemical strategies in installing the methyl group.

Distinct functions, multiple application forms and representative applications of green polyphenols in photothermal interfacial evaporation systems are comprehensively and systematically summarized.

Bio-inspired materials and design serve as a source of inspiration for the design of electrodes, electrolytes, interfaces and devices, inducing flexibility, selective ionic transport, self-healing properties or biodegradability.

This article reviews the supply of nickel metal for lithium-ion batteries with regard to its resources, reserves, extraction and recycling, and application.

This tutorial review highlights the advancement of the emerging electrocatalysts featuring unique symmetry-breaking structures for nitrate reduction to ammonia.

This review introduces the structure and failure mechanism of lithium-ion batteries, followed by a systematic summary of recycling techniques, including direct, hydrometallurgical, and pyrometallurgical recovery.

BDSCCs, known as efficient solid acid catalysts with easy preparation and a green source, are anticipated to play a role in advancing circular and economic development in various sectors.

We explored effective solutions for enhancing the operational stability of ZIBs by designing hydrogel electrolytes that protect zinc anodes, cathodes, and electrolytes.

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), as a mild oxidant and promising liquid fuel, has widespread application potential in energy and environment fields.

Electrode modification of VRFB with “3Es”.

The conversion of lignocellulose biomass to furfural can be performed using one-step and two-step strategies. A techno-economic analysis plays a crucial role in evaluating the overall economic feasibility of industrial-scale furfural production.

In this review paper, recent developments of iron oxide nanoparticles are highlighted and discussed in the field of organic catalysis and environmental remediation.

This review highlights recent advancements in the selective conversion of biomass-derived furfural to high-value platform chemicals over various heterogeneous catalytic systems.

This article reviews different types of covalent porous catalysts for eCO2RR, including their design principles, the latest progress and their structure–activity relationships reported in recent literature.

Seaweed biomass is gaining industrial and economic momentum as a renewable feedstock for high-value products, including nutraceuticals, value-added chemicals and bioplastics.

This article highlighted the recent demand for sustainable and resource efficient drug synthesis using electrochemical strategies.

Vital aspects to consider when implementing green analytical chemistry in mass spectrometry.

This article reviews recent advancements in AOR catalysts, emphasizing mechanistic studies through in situ characterization and DFT calculations to unravel the structure-performance correlation.

This review presents the research progress in the stabilization of Zn anodes using various solvents, including alcohols, amines, acetonitrile, lipids, ethers, and dimethyl sulfoxide.

In this review, many strategies, such as improving metal dispersion, strengthening metal–support interaction, increasing CO₂ adsorption and activation, promoting oxygen release/storage capacity, were proposed to improve catalytic performance of DRM.

This tutorial review provides a comprehensive and authoritative summary on the exciting research activities in the fields of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs), covering their synthesis and their applications in a number of areas.

Different strategies of mass transfer enhancement in a Pt-based cathode catalyst layer for PEM fuel cells.

The formation of strain, the effect of strain on CO₂ reduction reactions, and the recent advances in strain engineering for CO₂ reduction reactions have been systemically reviewed.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the current scientific status of monomer and polymer synthesis, as well as the areas of application for (meth)acrylates based on monoterpenes, using the industrially available IBOMA as an example.

This work provides a review of green approaches for producing drug delivery systems (DDSs) to identify the challenges in effectively retaining and further releasing low molecular weight molecules from all-aqueous matrices.

Strategies for avoiding scaling relations of ammonia synthesis on the transition metal catalysts are reviewed. The green plasma ammonia processes on N₂ and H₂/H₂O are emphasized.

The application of photocatalyzed Minisci-type reactions in LSF accelerates the discovery of drug candidates in a green way.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) enable many processes to be environmentally friendly. This Tutorial Review aims to showcase the roles of DESs in the synthesis of functional materials from a green chemistry perspective.

This review concludes the recent advance of nature-inspired hair dyes including categories and preparation, emphasizing the interaction between pigment and hair. The pigmentation mechanisms and color-tuning strategies are also elaborated.

Fully hydrated! – Iron photocatalysis tests the waters.

Ionic liquids as additives in nanoparticles influence their morphology and enhance their bioactivity, highlighting their key role in sustainable chemistry, a major environmental advance.

This review comprehensively describes the recent advancements in the design and preparation of Pickering emulsions and systematically highlights their green catalysis applications using as-fabricated nano/microreactors.

This work summarizes a review on the selective oxidation of glycerol via photocatalysis/photoelectrocatalysis. We elucidate the unique reaction pathways induced by photo-generated reactive species from a green chemistry point of view.

Hypercrosslinked polymers and the resultant carbon materials are promising platforms for CO₂ capture and conversion, because of their high specific surface areas, and modifiable and accessible surface functionalities.

Recent advances in electroreductive upgradation of biomass to high-value chemicals and energy-intensive biofuels via various transformation routes are showcased.

Organocatalytic enantioselective cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction provides a great opportunity for the synthesis of highly enantioenriched molecules. In this review, recent progress in this field is summarized.

Aerobic oxidative cyanation of diverse oxygen-containing compounds over thermo- and photocatalysts is highlighted as a green and promising avenue for nitrile synthesis.

Hydrotropic solvents are a promising solvent in biomass processing due to their unique amphiphilic structure. This review summarizes recent advances in hydrotropic solvent systems with their chemical structure, amphiphilicity, roles, and mechanism.

Polyurethanes (PUs) represent a family of useful synthetic polymers (thermoplastic or thermosetting) obtained from diisocyanates and diols/polyols via polycondensation reactions.

By harnessing the reactivity of alkynes and alkenes under photochemical conditions, novel pathways have been unlocked to construct N-heterocyclic compounds, allowing for more efficient and sustainable synthesis.

Thermoplastic starch (TPS) has acquired considerable attention and many efforts have been devoted to its application in many areas, such as food packaging, waterborne coatings, gas barriers, and energy storage and generation.

With the consequent retirement of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), there has been an upsurge in spent LIBs, posing significant challenges to energy, resources, and the environment, which has led to the necessity to recycle spent LIBs.

Lignocellulosic-derived biorefineries present an environmentally friendly avenue for generating biofuels and bioproducts, curbing emissions, and advancing environmental stewardship.

The Tutorial review critically considers the application of materials bearing boronate groups for separation and recovery of saccharides and polyols via affinity adsorption processes.

In this review, the recent developments in the electrocatalytic conversion of methane under ambient conditions, with focus on metal oxide catalysts, are examined. The commonly employed strategies are systematically reviewed.

This review addressed the recent advances of biocompatible ionic liquids that include the production of renewable commodities and approaches in catalysis and the pharmaceutical field. Likewise, patents and future perspectives are discussed.

Montmorillonite is widely applied in the field of electrochemical energy storage mainly due to its low cost, inherent high ionic conductivity, tuneable 2D layered structure, and abundant chemisorption active sites.

MASE is well suited for use in the nature-aided drug discovery, but the OFAT approach risks limiting the advantages offered by the technique. The way to make it truly green is to couple MASE with DoE, although this coupling is still limited.

This work aims to review the latest progress in chemocatalytic production of sorbitol from cellulose with emphasis on sustainable chemistry.

Organosolv process: from biomass to sustainable products.

There is an urgent need for the development of sustainable transformation of today's membrane distillation approaches into a greener way.

Deep eutectic solvents can be used as the pretreatment solvents, carbon precursors, soft templates, carbonization media, and post-modification agents for the preparation and functionalization of biomass-derived carbonaceous materials.

Amongst all synthetic polymers used in the clothing industry, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most widely used polyester, its fibres representing half the total PET global market (in comparison bottle PET being less than a third).

This review systematically discusses the recent progress in the selective aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using various carbon-based catalytic materials.

Solvent effects are pivotal steps in carbohydrate utilization by modulating solute-solvent interactions.

Over the past few years, the proliferation of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) as pivotal energy storage solutions has surged dramatically.

This review summarizes recent advances in the synthesis, characterization and application of heteroatom (Ti, Zr, Sn, and Hf) Lewis acid zeolites in the conversion of biomass-derived oxygenates.

In this review, we present a comprehensive strategies for overcoming hurdles to store hydrogen and natural gas in the clathrate hydrate media under a static system.

Greener batteries are an emerging approach for sustainable environments and a promising technology for future batteries. In this review, we discuss the main issues to fully achieve the potential of batteries with greener approaches.