(+)-Limonene is a renewable chemical with numerous and growing applications. Its traditional uses such as flavor, fragrance and green solvent are rapidly expanding to include its utilization as a platform chemical, extraction solvent for natural products and an active agent for functionalized products. We anticipate that the expansion in uses for limonene will translate into increasing production and use of this relevant natural product, especially for advanced applications.

A large number of immobilized-Pd-catalysts for cross-coupling reactions have been introduced in the last decade. Are the observed catalyzed reactions truly heterogeneous or are they homogeneous due to leached palladium? This account critically addresses the leaching issue by selectively referring to some of the newly developed catalytic systems in an attempt to evaluate said systems based on uniform criteria. The report is concluded by identifying the relevant chemical and structural challenges in the field

We have found that the utilization of carbon nanotubes as support for ruthenium nanoparticles increases hydrogenation activity over 40 times in terms of turnover frequency (TOF) when compared to activated carbon in the transformation of hydroxymethylfurfural to dimethylfuran. Catalysts based on carbon nanotubes produced 83.5% yield of dimethylfuran (TOF 819.7 h −1 ) in under 1 h at 150 °C and less than 20 bar hydrogen pressure, whereas the activated carbon catalyst required more than 3 h to give an 80% yield of dimethylfuran (TOF 36 h −1 ). The superior accessibility of pores in carbon nanotubes, plus an electronic promotional effect in the carbon nanotubes, appear to be responsible for the superior activity of the catalysts supported on carbon nanotubes. The catalysts were synthesized by impregnation and characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nitrogen physisorption, temperature-programmed reduction, electron microscopy and pulse CO chemisorption to propose the structure−activity relationships. This work highlights the importance of the support in hydrogenating reactions with ruthenium and the potential applicability of carbon nanotubes as supports for the hydrogenation of other bioderivatives.

A new series of leach-proof nanostructured Pd(0) catalysts able to catalyze a number of fundamental organic transformations including C–C bond formation has been developed. Reactions in general proceed with high yield and often at completion, while the catalysts can be reused in further reaction runs. This establishes a new class of relevant solid catalysts for synthetic organic chemistry trademarked SiliaCat Pd0 Hydrogel

Depolymerising hemicellulose into platform sugar molecules is a key step in developing the concept of an integrated biorefinery. This reaction is traditionally catalysed by either enzymes or homogeneous mineral acids. We compared various solid catalysts for hemicellulose hydrolysis, running reactions in water, under neutral pH and relatively mild temperature and pressure (120 °C and 10 bar) conditions. Sulphonated resins are highly active, but they leach out sulphonic groups. Sulphonated silicas are less active, but more stable. They have weakly and strongly bound sites and the strongly bound ones do not leach. Zeolites are moderately active and stable. Among them, H-ferrierite especially, despite its small pores, exhibited high activity as well as good recyclability

Limonene: A Versatile Chemical of the Bioeconomy -[62 refs.]. -(CIRIMINNA, R.; LOMELI-RODRIGUEZ, M.; DEMMA CARA, P.; LOPEZ-SANCHEZ, J. A.; PAGLIARO*, M.; Chem. Commun. (Cambridge) 50 (2014) 97, 15288-15296, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C4CC06147K ; CNR, Ist. Stud. Mater. Nanostrutt., I-90146 Palermo, Italy; Eng.) -S. Adam 05-238

Chemistry is among the last of the core natural sciences to embrace preprints, namely, the publication of non peer-reviewed scientific articles on the Internet. After a brief insight into the origins and the purpose of preprints in science, we conducted a concrete analysis of the concrete situation, aiming at providing an answer to several questions. Why has the chemistry community been late in embracing preprints? Is this in relation with the slow acceptance of open-access publishing by the same community? Will preprints become a common habit also for chemistry scholars?

Silicates doped with catalytic species have\ud only been slowly adopted by the fine chemicals and\ud pharmaceutical industries, in spite of their remarkable\ud and unique properties such as pronounced physical\ud and chemical stability; high (enantio)selective\ud activity and ease of materials production and application.\ud This is now changing thanks to stricter safety\ud regulations and to concomitant success of the first\ud commercial catalysts. In this account we tell the\ud story of these materials and identify some deficiencies\ud in the innovation process that may serve as\ud lesson in guiding the future management of innovation\ud in these relevant industries