Green chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystallization kinetics of metal-organic frameworks in conventional organic solvents are usually very slow. Here, the authors show that an ionic liquid medium accelerates considerably the formation of Zr-based metal-organic frameworks that are active catalysts in the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reaction.

    • Xinxin Sang
    • , Jianling Zhang
    •  & Buxing Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using precious noble elements as single atom metal catalysts is highly desirable and effective. Here the authors show the use of platinum atom catalysts anchored in mesoporous Al2O3for selective hydrogenation and CO oxidation that have better stability and performance compared to their nanoparticle counterparts.

    • Zailei Zhang
    • , Yihan Zhu
    •  & Ning Yan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lignin is cheap and abundant, and potentially a major source of aromatic compounds. Here the authors show selective production of arenes via hydrodeoxygenation of lignin over Ru/Nb2O5, and mechanistically show the strong influence of the Nb2O5support on phenolic bond dissociation energies.

    • Yi Shao
    • , Qineng Xia
    •  & Yanqin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trivalent lanthanides possess similar chemical properties, making their separation from one another challenging. Here, Wang and colleagues demonstrate that their subtle chemical differences can be greatly amplified during borate crystallization, leading to a low cost and highly efficient separation strategy.

    • Xuemiao Yin
    • , Yaxing Wang
    •  & Shuao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conversion of biomass-derived chemicals to industrially relevant products can allow sustainable production of organic compounds. Here the authors report that aromatic ethers, which can be derived for biomass, can be converted into various cyclohexanones via a bromide salt-modified palladium catalyst.

    • Qinglei Meng
    • , Minqiang Hou
    •  & Buxing Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Given the scarcity and cost of platinum, it is important to develop sustainable processes for its recycling. Here, the authors report the dissolution of metallic platinum using reductive and oxidative gases to repetitively change its surface oxidation state, in the absence of an external electric current.

    • Nejc Hodnik
    • , Claudio Baldizzone
    •  & Karl J. J. Mayrhofer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energy storage and biomass utilization are two major challenges for sustainability. Here the authors use a major lignin hydrogenolysis product for the synthesis of an N-heterocycle and develop a bimetallic catalyst for repeated hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of this and other molecules for hydrogen storage.

    • Daniel Forberg
    • , Tobias Schwob
    •  & Rhett Kempe

  • Article |

    Most carbon capture technologies rely on corrosive amine solutions, or high surface area materials. Here, the authors fabricate polymer microcapsules with liquid carbonate cores and permeable silicone shells combining the capacity of liquid sorbents with the surface area and low volatility of solid materials.

    • John J. Vericella
    • , Sarah E. Baker
    •  & Roger D. Aines

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oxidants currently used in the preparation of graphene oxide (GO) require long reaction times, relatively high temperatures and costly waste treatment. Here, the authors propose the use of a strong green oxidant, K2FeO4, establishing a fast, safe, toxicity-free route to GO production.

    • Li Peng
    • , Zhen Xu
    •  & Chao Gao

  • Review Article |

    Carbon dioxide is an abundant and easily available source of carbon, produced as a waste product in large quantities worldwide. Here, the authors review recent work on activating and reacting carbon dioxide for use as a building block in organic synthesis.

    • Qiang Liu
    • , Lipeng Wu
    •  & Matthias Beller

  • Article |

    Lindlar catalysts are widely used for partial hydrogenation of alkynes, however they can be somewhat limited by toxicity of lead and low selectivity. Here, the authors report that the modification of palladium nanoparticles with boron atoms in the interstitial sites yields selective hydrogenation catalysts.

    • Chun Wong Aaron Chan
    • , Abdul Hanif Mahadi
    •  & Shik Chi Edman Tsang

  • Article |

    The most common carbon dioxide-capture technology is solution-based amine scrubbing, which suffers from high operational costs. Here, the authors report a family of solid amine sorbents, formed via cationic polymerization of oxazolines, and evaluate their carbon dioxide sorption performance.

    • Genggeng Qi
    • , Liling Fu
    •  & Emmanuel P. Giannelis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Propane is the main component of liquid petroleum gas and has a wide variety of commercial applications. Here, the authors engineer a synthetic metabolic pathway in E. coli, and demonstrate for the first time the renewable production of propane.

    • Pauli Kallio
    • , András Pásztor
    •  & Patrik R. Jones

  • Article |

    Aromatic and aliphatic nitriles are important precursors required for many important compounds. Here, the authors report the relatively environmentally benign synthesis of a range of nitriles from alcohols treated with ammonia and oxygen in the presence of graphene supported non-noble metal oxide catalysts.

    • Rajenahally V. Jagadeesh
    • , Henrik Junge
    •  & Matthias Beller

  • Article |

    Typically, microbial methane production occurs under oxygen-free conditions and abiotic methane production occurs under harsh conditions. Here, the authors show methane production from organosulphur compounds under ambient conditions, suggesting a role for these compounds in methane formation in the environment.

    • Frederik Althoff
    • , Kathrin Benzing
    •  & Frank Keppler

  • Article |

    Natural gas is a widely used fossil fuel, but its extraction results in the venting of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Here, the authors demonstrate that nucleophilic porous carbons can store this carbon dioxide as a polymer, and that the polymerization requires lower pressures than previously observed.

    • Chih-Chau Hwang
    • , Josiah J. Tour
    •  & James M. Tour

  • Article |

    Office printing is popular around the world, but suffers from the relatively high cost of ink and excessive paper waste. Here the authors demonstrate an eco-friendly dye-impregnated rewritable paper that can be printed using water and erased by heating, thereby allowing simple, repeated recycling.

    • Lan Sheng
    • , Minjie Li
    •  & Sean Xiao-An Zhang

  • Article |

    Incomplete oxidation of fuels is a common problem in enzymatic fuel cells and it leads to low energy densities. Zhu et al. report the complete oxidation of sugar in an enzymatic fuel cell through a synthetic enzymatic pathway, which exhibits higher energy densities than lithium-ion batteries.

    • Zhiguang Zhu
    • , Tsz Kin Tam
    •  & Y. -H. Percival Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Droplets of water on very hot surfaces form levitating droplets, according to the Leidenfrost effect. Here, the authors show that green chemistry can be performed in these charged droplets, demonstrated by the synthesis of a range of nanoparticles, nanoscale coatings and porous metallic materials.

    • Ramzy Abdelaziz
    • , Duygu Disci-Zayed
    •  & Mady Elbahri

  • Article |

    Lead-acid batteries are used worldwide, but their recycling remains challenging because of lead pollution and high energy consumption. Pan et al. solve these problems in a high-yield, hydrometallurgical process based on hydrogen-lead oxide fuel cell reactions, which produce water as the by-product.

    • Junqing Pan
    • , Yanzhi Sun
    •  & Arumugam Manthiram

  • Article |

    The development of materials for the effective removal of oils and solvents from water is of global importance. Here, the authors show that porous, hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets are capable of absorbing many times their own weight in oil while repelling water, and may be cleaned for reuse by heating or burning in air.

    • Weiwei Lei
    • , David Portehault
    •  & Ying Chen

  • Article |

    Methane is an important greenhouse gas but its capture presents a challenge due to its weak interactions with most materials. Here the authors perform a systematic screening of liquid solvents and nanoporous zeolites, and identify zeolite structures with good potential for methane uptake and separation.

    • Jihan Kim
    • , Amitesh Maiti
    •  & Roger D. Aines

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tunnelling transitions triggered by microwave irradiation between coupled quantum dots have generally been assumed to be spin-conserving. This study shows that this condition is violated in the presence of spin–orbit coupling, thus opening new possibilities for manipulating a two–spin qubit system by microwave irradiation.

    • L.R. Schreiber
    • , F.R. Braakman
    •  & L.M.K. Vandersypen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advanced biofuels with comparable properties to petroleum-based fuels could be microbially produced from lignocellulosic biomass. In this study,Escherichia coliis engineered to produce bisabolene, the immediate precursor of bisabolane, a biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel.

    • Pamela P. Peralta-Yahya
    • , Mario Ouellet
    •  & Taek Soon Lee

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