Solvay

About: Solvay is a company organization based out in Brussels, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Polymer. The organization has 6083 authors who have published 7004 publications receiving 105745 citations.

Aquivion®–carbon composites via hydrothermal carbonization: amphiphilic catalysts for solvent-free biphasic acetalization

Abstract: One-pot hydrothermal carbonization of polysaccharides (i.e. guar gum or cellulose) with Aquivion® perfluorosulfonic superacid at 180 °C produced new amphiphilic Aquivion®–carbon composites. The materials stabilized dodecyl aldehyde/ethyleneglycol Pickering emulsions, and thus efficiently catalyzed the solvent-free biphasic acetalization reaction under moderate conditions with excellent reusability.

Direct aerobic oxidation of monoalcohol and diols to acetals using tandem Ru@MOF catalysts

Abstract: The aerobic oxidation of monoalcohols and diols to acetals is an important academic and industrial challenge for the production of fine chemicals and intermediates. The existing methods usually rely on a two-step process in which alcohols are first oxidized to aldehydes over metal catalysts (Ru, Pt, Pd) and then acetalized using acids. Due to the instability of aldehydes, how to avoid over-oxidation to their respective carboxylic acids and esters is a long-standing challenge. For this reason, certain non-conjugated dialdehydes have never been successfully produced from diol oxidation. Hereby we report a Ru@metal-organic framework (MOF) tandem catalyst containing ultra-fine Ru nanoparticles (< 2 nm) for direct alcohol to acetal conversion of monoalcohol and diols with no formation of carboxylic acids. Mechanistic study reveals that the presence of Lewis acid sites in the MOF work in concert with Ru active sites to promptly convert aldehydes to acetals thereby effectively suppressing the formation of over-oxidation byproducts.