Abstract:Mononuclear unsymmetrical N-heterocyclic carbene-gold complexes and the corresponding solid catalysts in which a gold-carbene complex has been immobilized on silica gel, ordered mesoporous silica (MCM-41), and delaminated zeolite (ITQ-2) have been prepared. These new catalysts have been tested in the hydrogenation of alkenes and the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction to afford selectively non-symmetrical biaryls. These reactions were studied with the soluble as well as with the heterogenized counterpart catalysts. The high accessibility introduced by the structure of the supports allows the preparation of highly efficient immobilized catalysts with TOFs up to 400 h À1. Moreover, the heterogenized complexes were reused and no deactivation of the catalysts can be observed.

Recycling of heterogenized gold(I), gold(III), and palladium(II) complexes could be achieved for Suzuki and Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction between iodo benzene and arylboronic acids or alkynes. Au(I) and Pd(II) afford selectively nonsymmetrical biaryl compounds, while gold(III) complexes can only catalyze the arylboronic or alkynes homocoupling. Recycling occurs without loss of the catalytic activity after several reaction cycles.

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Porosity is a factor affecting catalyst efficiency in pelletized form. This implies that care should be taken with uncritically relating activity measurements from transmission operando FTIR to final catalyst performance. If the pelletizing pressure is excessive, a destruction of the pore structure of, for example, support oxides might take place, which in turn affects the pore size distribution and the porosity of the catalyst, leading to the observation of lower activity values due to decreased catalyst efficiency. This phenomenon can also apply to conventional activity measurements, in the cases that pelletizing and recrushing of samples are performed to obtain adequate particle size fractions for the catalytic bed. A case study of an operando investigation of a V2O5-WO3/TiO2-sepiolite catalyst is used as an example, and simple calculations of the influence of catalyst activity and internal pore diffusion properties are considered in this paper for the evaluation of catalyst performance in, for example, operando reactors. Thus, it is demonstrated that with a pelletizing pressure of <1–2 ton/cm2, the pore structure is only negligibly altered, and small deteriorations of estimated catalyst efficiencies are observed for first-order kinetic constants lower than 100 mL/gs. However, if the operando study deals with highly active catalysts, it is necessary to consider efficiency losses. A simple procedure for evaluating efficiencies based on pellet dimensions and solid phase characteristics is proposed. The Thiele modulus is directly proportional to the thickness of the pellet, and, thus, inversely related to the catalyst efficiency. As a rule of thumb, we found that for catalytic constants below 100 mL/gs, the maximum thickness of the pellet pressed at 2 tons/cm2 has to be as low as 80 μm to exhibit catalyst efficiencies above 90%. For catalysts with k′ = 10 mL/gs, the value is 260 μm. This strongly underlines the importance of taking internal diffusion limitations into account when working with highly active catalysts.

A valorization process of spent coffee grounds (SCG) was studied. Thus, a two-stage process, the first stage of polyphenols extraction and synthesis of a carbonaceous precursor and a subsequent stage of obtaining activated carbon (AC) by means of a carbonization process from the precursor of the previous stage, was performed. The extraction was carried out with a hydro-alcoholic solution in a pressure reactor, modifying time, temperature and different mixtures EtOH:H2O. To optimize the polyphenols extraction, a two-level factorial experimental design with three replicates at the central point was used. The best results were obtained by using a temperature of 80 °C during 30 min with a mixture of EtOH:H2O 50:50 (v/v). Caffeine and chlorogenic acid were the most abundant compounds in the analysed extracts, ranging from 0.09 to 4.8 mg∙g−1 and 0.06 to 9.7 mg∙g−1, respectively. Similarly, an experimental design was realized in order to analyze the influence of different variables in the AC obtained process (reaction time, temperature and KOH:precursor ratio). The best results were 1 h, 850 °C, and a mixture of 2.5:1. The obtained activated carbons exhibit a great specific surface (between 1600 m2∙g−1 and 2330 m2∙g−1) with a microporous surface. Finally, the adsorption capacity of the activated carbons was evaluated by methylene blue adsorption.

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