Hexadecylphosphate-Functionalized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Mild Oxidation of Benzyl C–H Bonds Exclusive to Carbonyls by Molecular Oxygen

Abstract

We report here a specially designed catalytic system consisting of hexadecylphosphate-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles in oil/water biphasic emulsion. The iron oxide nanoparticles act as catalytic centers and the surfacebonded hexadecylphosphates as peripheral units which tune the activity of iron oxide and the access of reactants to the catalytic centers. The catalytic system is highly effective to oxidize the benzyl C−H bonds in a series of compounds to carbonyls exclusively by molecular oxygen under mild conditions. The catalytic process, green and low cost, offers a novel concept to design highly effective catalysts with nanoparticles as active centers and surface-bonded organic phosphates as accelerants for oxidation reactions.

Gel permeation chromatography as a multifunctional processor for nanocrystal purification and on-column ligand exchange chemistry

“…Besides carboxylates, alkylphosphonic acids (and their deprotonated forms) are among the most common ligands for oxide and compound semiconductor nanomaterials due to strong coordination of the surfaces of these materials. 28 , 31 For example, the most common method to synthesize TDPA-capped CdSe QDs entails preparing a Cd phosphonate salt and mixing it with trioctylphosphine selenide (TOPSe) in a solvent consisting of trioctylphosphine (TOP) and trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO). 32 After NC growth, significant amounts of free phosphorus-containing molecules remain in the system; 31 P NMR is ideal to profile the components remaining in the sample solution after purification by different methods.…”

Highly Selective Artificial Potassium Ion Channels Constructed from Pore‐Containing Helical Oligomers

“…This observation inspired us to optimize the pore structure of helical channels to develop highly selective artificial ion channels. Previous studies suggested that a queue of contiguous ion binding sites in the channel pore plays significant roles in highly selective conduction of channel models . Therefore, we wonder if a synthetic channel pore containing multiple ion binding sites can show the transporting specificity, as natural K + channels do.…”

Synthesis of Long‐Chain n‐Alkylphosphonic Acids by Phosphonylation of Alkyl Bromides with Red Phosphorus and Superbase under Micellar/Phase Transfer Catalysis

“…In recent years, there has been published an impressive series of works devoted to the successful use of long‐chain n ‐alkylphosphonic acids in the nanoindustry for the design of diverse nanomaterials such as NPs, [25] nanocrystals, [26] nanotubes, [15c,27] nanolayers, nanofibers, nanorods, [28] tetrapods, [28a] nanoplatelets, [29] nanoflakes, [19b] which find application in optoelectronics, [29b,30] high‐tech technologies, [26b,27,31] catalysis, [25a] water treatment processes [25b] …”