A simple and efficient Pd/Al₂O₃-NR-RD catalyst was prepared by depositing palladium on a shape controllable Al₂O₃-NR support through a two-step process that involves hydrothermal synthesis of Al₂O₃-NR_s followed by reductive-deposition of palladium. This catalyst showed high activity in the catalytic formylation of amines by CO₂–H₂ under mild conditions with up to 96% yield.

★★★★☆ Cui XJ,Zhang Y,Deng YQ,et al. Amine Formylation Via Carbon Dioxide Recycling Catalyzed By A Simple And Efficient Heterogeneous Palladium Catalyst[J]. Chemical Communications,2013,50:189-191.

The electroreduction of oxygen of MnO_x-Co₃O₄/C was firstly studied in alkaline media. The MnO_x-Co₃O₄/C showed better electrocatalytic activity towards ORR than MnO_x/C and Co₃O₄/C. Compared to Pt/C, MnO_x-Co₃O₄/C showed better methanol tolerance and durability in alkaline solution. Thus, the MnO_x-Co₃O₄/C catalyst had potential for applications in metaleair batteries and alkaline fuel cells.

Keywords: Manganese oxides; Cobalt oxides; Oxygen reduction reaction; Alkaline media

★★★☆☆ Wang Y,Ma XY,Lu LJ,et al. Carbon Supported Mnox–co3o4 As Cathode Catalyst For Oxygen Reduction Reaction In Alkaline Media[J]. International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy,2013,38:13611-13616.

Electric fields of ionic liquids (ILs) were investigated by vibrational Stark effect spectroscopy using ethyl thiocyanate as a probe molecule. It was found that the stretching vibration of C≡N in nonhydroxyl ILs originates exclusively from the intrinsic electric fields, which are on average 3.0 MV cm^-1 higher than those of molecular solvents. In contrast, in the case of hydroxyl functional ILs, hydrogen bonding as well as the electric field contribute to the IR shift of C≡N.

★★★☆☆ Zhang SG,Zhang Y,Deng YQ. Investigation Of The Intrinsic Electric Field Of Nonhydroxyl And Hydroxyl Ionic Liquids By Vibrational Stark Effect Spectroscopy[J]. Rsc Advances,2013,3:11480-11484.

As the sustainable and promising hydrogen source, here, glycerol was directly used as the hydrogen source for the reductive amination of alcohol using nitrobenzene as the starting material. The amination of alcohols, especially aliphatic alcohols with different structures, was realized, and mono- or disubstituted amines were synthesized with excellent yields. The reaction mechanism was also explored.

KEYWORDS: amines, alcohols, N-alkylation, glycerol, renewable, catalysis

★★★☆☆ xinjiang Cui,Youquan Deng,Feng Shi. Reductive N‑alkylation Of Nitro Compounds To N‑alkyl And N,n‑dialkyl Amines With Glycerol As The Hydrogen Source[J]. Acs Catalysis,2013,3:808-811.

The N-alkylation of amines or ammonia with alcohols is a valuable route for the synthesis of N-alkyl amines. However, as a potentially clean and economic choice for N-alkyl amine synthesis, non-noble metal catalysts with high activity and good selectivity are rarely reported. Normally, they are severely limited due to low activity and poor generality. Herein, a simple NiCu-FeO_x catalyst was designed and prepared for the N-alkylation of ammonia or amines with alcohol or primary amines. N-alkyl amines with various structures were successfully synthesized in moderate to excellent yields in the absence of organic ligands and bases. Typically, primary amines could be efficiently transformed into secondary amines and N-heterocyclic compounds, and secondary amines could be N-alkylated to synthesize tertiary amines. Note that primary and secondary amines could be produced through a one-pot reaction of ammonia and alcohols. In addition to excellent catalytic performance, the catalyst itself possesses outstanding superiority, that is, it is air and moisture stable. Moreover, the magnetic property of this catalyst makes it easily separable from the reaction mixture and it could be recovered and reused for several runs without obvious deactivation.

Keywords: alcohols · amination ·ammonia · heterogeneous catalysis ·non-noble metals

★★★☆☆ Cui XJ,Dai XC,Deng YQ,et al. Development Of A General Non-noble Metal Catalyst For The Benign Amination Of Alcohols With Amines And Ammonia[J]. Chemistry A-europeann Journal,2013,19(11):3665-3675.

★★★☆☆ Yang HM,Cui XJ,Deng YQ,et al. Selective Hydrogenation Of Nitroaromatic Compounds With A Nickel-oxide-supported Nano-palladium Catalyst Under Ambient Reaction Conditions[J]. Chemcatchem,2013,5:1739-1743.

The controllable preparation of nano-gold catalyst maintains a challenge. Except the parameters have been revealed before, here we’d like to show that controllable preparation of active nano-gold catalyst can be achieved using chlorine as an indicator. By tracing the chlorine concentration in the washing step, a series of Au/Fe₂O₃ catalysts were prepared with co-precipitation method. The applying of these catalysts in CO oxidation and reductive nitrobenzene N-alkylation suggested the active catalysts were prepared from solutions containing ～2 ppm chlorine. The catalytic activity dropped dramatically if the chlorine concentration is >4–6 or <<1 ppm. Extensive characterizations revealed that the active catalyst was composed by nano-gold on the edge of Fe₂O₃ particle with 8.92 Au-Au coordination numbers. Although the real role of chlorine in the variation of catalyst structure and activity was still ambiguous, the current results should promote the controllable preparation of active nano-Au catalyst.

★★☆☆☆ Zhang CM,Liu LQ,Cui XJ,et al. Chlorine As An Indicator In The Controllable Preparation Of Active Nano-gold Catalyst[J]. Scientific Reports,2013,3:1503(1-7).

A series of carbon aerogels were prepared with or without using ionic liquids as templates. By varying the structures and contents of ionic liquids, carbon aerogels with different pore size distributions could be obtained. The effect of the ionic liquids on the properties of the final carbon aerogels was explored and the catalytic performance of the carbon aerogels in the selective oxidation of tetralin was studied.

★★★☆☆ Yang HM,Cui XJ,Deng YQ,et al. Ionic Liquid Templated Preparation Of Carbon Aerogels Based On Resorcinol–formaldehyde: Properties And Catalytic Performance[J]. J. Mater. Chem.,2012,22:21852-21856.

★★★★☆ Zhang SG,Shi R,Ma XY,et al. Intrinsic Electric Fields In Ionic Liquids Determined By Vibrational Stark Effect Spectroscopy And Molecular Dynamics Simulation[J]. Chem. Eur. J.,2012,18:11904-11908.

Ionic liquids (ILs)-stabilized iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles were synthesized by the ultrasonic decomposition of iron carbonyl precursors in [EMIm][BF4] without any stabilizing or capping agents. The Fe2O3 nanoparticles were isolated and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and susceptibility measurements. The physicochemical properties of ILs containing magnetic Fe2O3 nanoparticles (denoted as Fe2O3@[EMIm][BF4]), including surface properties, density, viscosity and stability, were investigated in detail and compared with that of [EMIm][BF4]. The Fe2O3@[EMIm][BF4] can be directly used as magnetic ionic liquid marble by coating with hydrophobic and unreactive polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), for which the effective surface tension was determined by the puddle height method. The resulting magnetic ionic liquid marble can be transported under external magnetic actuation, without detachment of magnetic particles from the marble surface that is usually observed in water marble.

★★★☆☆ Zhang SG,Zhang Y,Wang Y,et al. Sonochemical Formation Of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles In Ionic Liquids For Magnetic Liquid Marble[J]. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.,2012,14:5132-5138.