We report a catalyst made of Pd nanoparticles (NPs) supported on mesoporous N-doped carbon, Pd@CN(0132), which was shown to be highly active in promoting biomass refining. The use of a task-specific ionic liquid (3-methyl-1-butylpyridine dicyanamide) as a precursor and silica NPs as a hard template afforded a high-nitrogen-content (12 wt %) mesoporous carbon material that showed high activity in stabilizing Pd NPs. The resulting Pd@CN(0.132) catalyst showed very high catalytic activity in hydrodeoxygenation of vanillin (a typical model compound of lignin) at low H(2) pressure under mild conditions in aqueous media. Excellent catalytic results (100% conversion of vanillin and 100% selectivity for 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol) were achieved, and no loss of catalytic activity was observed after six recycles.

The development of efficient systems for selective aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons and alcohols to produce more functional compounds (aldehydes, ketones, acids or esters) with atmospheric air or molecular oxygen is a grand challenge for the chemical industry. Here we report the synthesis of palladium nanoparticles supported on novel nanoporous nitrogendoped carbon, and their impressive performance in the controlled oxidation of hydrocarbons and alcohols with air. In terms of catalytic activity, these catalysts afford much higher turnover frequencies (up to 863 turnovers per hour for hydrocarbon oxidation and up to B210,000 turnovers per hour for alcohol oxidation) than most reported palladium catalysts under the same reaction conditions. This work provides great potential for the application of ambient air and recyclable palladium catalysts in fine-chemical production with high activity.

Here we describe a lab-in-a-shell strategy for the preparation of multifunctional core-shell nanospheres consisting of a core of metal clusters and an outer microporous silica shell. Various metal clusters (e.g., Pd and Pt) were encapsulated and confined in the void space mediated by the entrapped polymer dots inside hollow silica nanospheres acting first as complexing agent for metal ions and additionally as encapsulator for clusters, limiting growth and suppressing the sintering. The Pd clusters encapsulated in hybrid core-shell structures exhibit exceptional size-selective catalysis in allylic oxidations of substrates with the same reactive site but different molecular size (cyclohexene ∼0.5 nm, cholesteryl acetate ∼1.91 nm). The solvent-free aerobic oxidation of diverse hydrocarbons and alcohols was further carried out to illustrate the benefits of such an architecture in catalysis. High activity, outstanding thermal stability and good recyclability were observed over the core-shell nanocatalyst.

A facile, template-free synthetic route is reported toward poly(ionic liquid) complexes (PILCs) which for the first time exhibit stable micro-/mesoporous structure. This is accomplished via in situ ionic complexation between imidazolium-based PILs and poly(acrylic acid) in various alkaline organic solvents. The PILC can be highly loaded with copper salts and can be used as a catalytic support for effective aerobic oxidation of activated hydrocarbons under mild conditions.

Pores for thought: Porous nitrogen-doped carbon materials (HTC Carbon with PILs) composed of spherical nanoparticles, and also those with Au-Pd core-shell nanoparticles embedded (Au-Pd@N-Carbon) were synthesized. These materials can be prepared from sugars by hydrothermal carbonization (160-200 °C) in the presence of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs), which act as a stabilizer, pore-generating agent, and nitrogen source.

The selective oxo-functionalization of hydrocarbons under mild conditions with molecular oxygen as the terminal oxidant continues to be a hot topic in organic synthesis and industrial chemistry. Though many oxidation protocols in combination with transition metal salts, enzymes, organometallic catalysts, or organocatalysts have been summarized recently, a review that focuses solely on the metal-free allylic/ benzylic oxidation strategies with molecular oxygen is still unavailable. This critical review will summarize recent significant advances achieved in this important field under the scope of green chemistry, which covers the promising applications and brief mechanistic profiles involving three kinds of efficient catalysts, namely N-hydroxyimides, homogeneous/heterogeneous light-sensitive molecules, and heteroatomdoped carbon materials, and concerns the sustainability of these methods, as well as predicts the potential utilization of available but unreported analogous catalysts or catalytic systems in this field. Special emphasis will also be placed on the burgeoning metal-free strategies with visible light irradiation from the long-term greenness and sustainability of these oxidation processes due to their established appealing performances under ambient conditions.

Carbon-based materials are the most popular material types in both fundamental research and industrial applications, partly because of their well-controlled nano-morphologies. In the past two decades, we have witnessed a number of breakthroughs in carbon research: fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and more recently graphene. Nowadays, carbon nanospheres are attracting more and more attention worldwide due to their excellent performance in various fields: drug delivery, heterogeneous catalysis, encapsulation of support and electrode materials. Actually, spherical carbon is an old material, whereas controlling carbon spheres in the nanometer range is a recent story. In the past 5 years, it has become possible to precisely control the particle size, surface area, pore size, chemical composition, and dispersity of carbon nanospheres. Toward this end, a number of synthetic strategies are emerging, such as hydrothermal carbonization of biomass-based resources, extended Stöber synthesis, and organic-organic self-assembly via different binding methods. In this feature article, we summarize recent routes for carbon nanospheres and briefly touch on their applications to shed light on the potential of this field. Throughout this article, a special emphasis is placed on the possible modulation of spherical structures at the nanoscale, and we wish to inspire many more designs and applications of carbon nanostructures in the near future.

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