The Catalyst Review August 2020 - 4

PROCESS NEWS
Light Shines on Chemical
Production Method...
A team of researchers from Yokohama
National University (Japan) has
demonstrated a light-based reaction
that yields high numbers of the base
chemical component required to
produce bioactive compounds used in
common industry products. Cycloaddition
reactions allow the preparation
carbocyclic and heterocyclic organic
compounds with atom-efficiency. For
a long time, researchers carried out
photocycloadditions of olefins such
as styrenes, a chemical used in the
production of plastics and rubber, by
treating them with high-energy ultraviolet
light or transition metal catalysts, which
are known to be toxic and expensive
chemical reagents.

The reaction mainly provides homo-dimers, not hetero-dimers. In addition, the
powerful light damages the bonds holding the chemical together, allowing it to break
apart and reform in a new configuration, known as a cyclobutene ring. Hoshino and
co-workers took advantage of this characteristic and applied a green, visible light to
styrenes situated in a two-by-two arrangement, allowing the chemical components and
bonds to selectively reorganize as the light freed electrons from the styrenes. The newly
organized chemical components were multisubstituted cyclobutanes. Source: Phys.Org,
8/3/2020.
Turning Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuel...
A research team, led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National
Laboratory in collaboration with Northern Illinois University, discovered a new
electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into ethanol with very
high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product and low cost. The
team led by Di-Jia Liu, senior chemist in Argonne's Chemical Sciences and Engineering
division and a UChicago CASE scientist in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering,
University of Chicago developed a catalyst that consists of atomically dispersed copper
on a carbon-powder support. By an electrochemical reaction, this catalyst breaks
down CO2 and water molecules and selectively reassembles the broken molecules into
ethanol under an external electric field. The electrocatalytic selectivity, or "Faradaic
efficiency," of the process is over 90%, much higher than any other reported process.
What is more, the catalyst operates stably over extended operation at low voltage.
Source: Argonne National Laboratory, 8/5/2020.
Insights into the Structure of an Enigmatic Catalyst...

The picture illustrates the redox potential
controlled selective oxidation of styrenes
for regio- and stereoselective crossed
intermolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition via
organophotoredox catalysis. Credit: Yujiro
Hoshino, Yokohama National University

A team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical
Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) has now succeeded in gaining insights into the structure
of the catalyst for the production of methanol active sites. In a first, the team showed
that the zinc component of the active site is positively charged and that the catalyst has
as many as two copper-based active sites. For the project, Professor Martin Muhler,
Head of the Department of Industrial Chemistry at RUB and Max Planck Fellow at
MPI CEC, collaborated with Bochum-based researcher Dr. Daniel Laudenschleger and
Mülheim-based researcher Dr. Holger Ruland. The researchers describe their findings
in the journal Nature Communications from 4 August 2020. Source: Ruhr-Universität
Bochum (RUB), 8/4/2020.

(Industry Perspectives continued from page 1)

We anticipate further/stronger consolidation during this event-driven recession, which will likely be deeper and last longer than
the fiscal-driven recession of 2008/09.
Industry executives, business development managers and R&D scientists will all need to display a steady hand over the next
year, as we navigate the impacts of COVID-19 coupled with the turmoil created by the OPEC+/Russia oil price war and regional
trade/tariff disputes. It is a crucial time to seek opportunities that conserve current costs, to make adjustments that improve
short term operational profitabilities, and to pursue investments that better position your business for the recovery. Companies
that can adapt, as well as innovate, will fare the best in the coming years. As always, TCGR's 2020 edition of The Intelligence
Report provides its clients with deep insight for planning and action.
For further information, including the complete study presentation, the report's actual Table of Contents and the Order Form,
please contact John J. Murphy at +1.215.628.4447 or John.J.Murphy@catalystgrp.com or go to https://www.catalystgrp.com/
multiclient_studies/intelligence-report-2020/.

The Catalyst Review

August 2020

http://www.Phys.Org https://www.catalystgrp.com/multiclient_studies/intelligence-report-2020/ https://www.catalystgrp.com/multiclient_studies/intelligence-report-2020/

The Catalyst Review August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review August 2020