General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Abstract: The synthesis is described of a series of calix [4]arenes with three different sensitizer chromophores ("antenna") attached to the lower rim via a short spacer. In the Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexes of these calixarenes, photoexcitation of the antenna can induce lanthanide emission via intramolecular energy transfer. Although the higher energy of the Tb3+ luminescent state makes it more difficult to sensitize than in the case of Eu3+, especially a triphenylene antenna is found to have strong sensitizing ability toward not only Eu3+ but also Tb3+, allowing excitation of the lanthanide with wavelengths extending to 350 nm.

Supramolecular chemistry in water is a constantly growing research area because noncovalent interactions in aqueous media are important for obtaining a better understanding and control of the major processes in nature. This Review offers an overview of recent advances in the area of water-soluble synthetic receptors as well as self-assembly and molecular recognition in water, through consideration of the functionalities that are used to increase the water solubility, as well as the supramolecular interactions and approaches used for effective recognition of a guest and self-assembly in water. The special features and applications of supramolecular entities in aqueous media are also described.

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In nuclear waste treatment processes there is a need for improved ligands for the separation of actinides (An(III)) and lanthanides (Ln(III)). Several research groups are involved in the design and synthesis of new An(III) ligands and in the confinement of these and existing An(III) ligands onto molecular platforms giving multicoordinate ligands. The preorganization of ligands considerably improves the An(III) extraction properties, which are largely dependent on the solubility and rigidity of the platform. This tutorial review summarizes the most important An(III) ligands with emphasis on the preorganization strategy using (macrocyclic) platforms.

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Liquid-liquid extraction is the major technique being applied for the partitioning of f-elements from nuclear waste. In this review, the recent developments in ligand design, optimization and extraction properties are summarised for the main classes of extractants (organophosphorus ligands, diamides and N-heterocycles), with a focus on the separation of actinides and lanthanides. Structural modifications, pre-organisation and different solvent systems, as key factors for the fine-tuning of the extraction properties, are discussed. From this review, it appears that small modifications of the structure of the ligand, the pre-organising platform or the solvent can have significant impact on the extraction (and separation) of metal ions. Interest in the combinations of ligands for the extraction processes is growing, since they provide improvements over individual ligands. Similarly, unconventional approaches are being pursued to develop more efficient and greener processes.

This review surveys the recent developments to perform heterogeneous catalysis in continuous‐flow microreactors. Three different types, namely, (i) packed‐bed, (ii) monolithic, and (iii) wall‐coated approaches are discussed to implement various kinds of catalysts in a microreactor. In addition, the applications of these supported catalysts to perform a variety of organic reactions are described. Furthermore, advantages of catalytic microreactors over classical batch reactors on one or more aspects of the reaction, such as rate, conversion, selectivity, and enantioselectivity are presented.magnified image

A microfluidic chip with an integrated planar microcoil was developed for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy on samples with volumes of less than a microliter. Real-time monitoring of imine formation from benzaldehyde and aniline in the microreactor chip by NMR was demonstrated. The reaction times in the chip can be set from 30 min down to ca. 2 s, the latter being the mixing time in the microfluidic chip. Design rules will be described to optimize the microreactor and detection coil in order to deal with the inherent sensitivity of NMR and to minimize magnetic field inhomogeneities and obtain sufficient spectral resolution.