Search

A multimodal Pr3+/Er3+ coactivated Ba2Ga2GeO7 phosphor.

A series of catalysts derived from silicotungstic acid (SiW) intercalated with CuZnFe hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTLCs) via ion-exchange method was prepared and characterized by N 2 -physisorption, XRD, TEM, SEM, H 2 -TPR, FT-IR, and Py-IR spectra. The intercalation of SiW species into CuZnFe HTLCs was confirmed by these characterization techniques, while the catalytic performance was evaluated for glycerol hydrogenolysis. It was found that introduction of SiW significantly enhanced the selectivity towards 1,3-propanediols (1,3-PDO), owing to the increased Bronsted acid introduction, as demonstrated by Py-IR analysis. The catalyst intercalating 30 wt.% SiW showed the highest selectivity (22.4%) to 1,3-PDO at 68.9% glycerol transformation. The catalytic performance was discussed and correlated with the physicochemical properties of these catalysts. The present contribution provides an economical approach to convert surplus glycerol from biodiesel manufacture to valuable propanediols.

For more than 3 decades, mounting evidence has associated porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infection with late-term abortions and stillbirths in sows and respiratory disease in piglets, causing enormous economic losses to the global swine industry. However, to date, the underlying mechanisms of PRRSV-triggered cell death have not been well clarified, especially in the pulmonary inflammatory injury characterized by the massive release of pro-inflammatory factors. Here, we demonstrated that PRRSV infection triggered gasdermin D-mediated host pyroptosis

Bimetal mixed MOFs of [CoZn][(BDC)(DABCO)0.5] (CZ-BDO), [CoNi][(BDC)(DABCO)0.5] (CN-BDO), and [NiZn][(BDC)(DABCO)0.5] (NZ-BDO) were prepared under solvothermal conditions and further employed as highly active accelerants for converting carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates. The characteristics of the bimetal compounds were revealed via various techniques, including ICP-OES, XRD, FT-IR, Raman, XPS, SEM, EDS maps, N2 adsorption, TG-DTG, and CO2/NH3-TPD. The catalytic results revealed that CZ-BDO is superior to the other samples for obtaining a satisfactory chloropropene carbonate (CPC) yield. The excellent catalytic activity may be owing to the presence of a solid solution within the Co and Zn bimetal sample, which provides synergistic catalysis in the carbon dioxide cycloaddition. In addition, the synergistic catalysis was further confirmed by the NH3-TPD profiles, whereby the amount of CZ-BDO basic sites was obviously enhanced compared to the other samples. Furthermore, DFT calculations were also performed to reveal the synergistic catalysis between Co and Zn for the coupling reaction. Additionally, when the coupling reaction was carried out at 100 °C for 5 h in the presence of 0.5 wt% epichlorohydrin (ECH) as a catalyst at 3.0 MPa, 99.31% conversion of ECH and 97.05% yield of CPC were obtained over the optimal CZ-BDO sample. Moreover, the bimetal sample can also efficiently convert other epoxides into the corresponding cyclic carbonates.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious disease and provokes severe economic losses and health threats. At present no effective vaccine or treatment is available to prevent or cure ASF. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop effective drugs against ASF virus (ASFV). Chlorine dioxide (ClO2), an ideal biocide, has broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and no drug resistance. Here, we found that ClO2 strongly inhibited ASFV replication in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs). The inhibitory effect of ClO2 occurred during viral attachment rather than entry, indicating that ClO2 suppressed the early stage of virus life cycle. ClO2 showed a potent anti-ASFV effect when added either before, simultaneously with, or after virus infection. Furthermore, ClO2 could destroy viral nucleic acids and proteins, which may contribute to its capacity of inactivating ASFV virions. The minimum concentration of degradation of ASFV nucleic acids by ClO2 is 1.2 μg/mL, and the degradation is a temperature-dependent manner. These have guiding significance for ClO2 prevention and control of ASFV infection in pig farms. In addition, ClO2 decreased the expression of ASFV-induced inflammatory cytokines. Overall, our findings suggest that ClO2 may be an ideal candidate for the development of novel anti-ASFV prophylactic and therapeutic drugs in swine industry.

Heterojunction engineering is a very prospective approach to modulate the photocatalytic behaviors of semiconductors. Herein, Venus flytrap-like NiCo hydroxide nanoflowers (HNF) with surface modification by different contents of CoSn(OH)

The metal organic framework (MOF) UiO-66, which incorporates Zr6O8 nodes, exhibits high stability under a wide range of conditions that commends it for potential applications. The MOF properties can be tuned by the choice of the groups bonded to the node defect sites and to the linkers. We report data for UiO-66 incorporating formate, acetate, benzoate, and trifluoroacetate on the nodes and −NH2, −OH, −NO2, and phenyl substituents on the benzene rings of the benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid-derived linkers. The MOFs were characterized by IR and 1H NMR spectroscopies, thermal gravimetric analysis, N2 adsorption, X-ray diffraction crystallography, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and electronic structure calculations. The ligands on the nodes were identified and quantified by 1H NMR spectra of the MOFs digested in NaOH/D2O solutions. The effects of the node and linker groups on the electronic properties of the nodes have been quantified with IR spectra of the node μ3-OH groups and by density func...

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) serves as an anti-inflammatory receptor, negatively regulating the innate immune response. TREM2 is mainly expressed on dendritic cells and macrophages, the target cells of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Thus, we investigated the potential role of TREM2 in PRRSV infection in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs). We found that there was an increased expression of TREM2 upon PRRSV infection in vitro. TREM2 silencing restrained the replication of PRRSV, whereas TREM2 overexpression facilitated viral replication. The cytoplasmic tail domain of TREM2 interacted with PRRSV Nsp2 to promote infection. TREM2 downregulation led to early activation of PI3K/NF-κB signaling, thus reinforcing the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and type I interferons. Due to the enhanced cytokine expression, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 was activated to promote the cleavage of membrane CD163, which resulted in suppression of infection. Furthermore, exogenous soluble TREM2 (sTREM2)-mediated inhibition of PRRSV attachment might be attributed to its competitive binding to viral envelope proteins. In pigs, following PRRSV challenge in vivo, the expression of TREM2 in lungs and lymph nodes as well as the production of sTREM2 were significantly increased. These novel findings indicate that TREM2 plays a role in regulating PRRSV replication via the inflammatory response. Therefore, our work describes a novel antiviral mechanism against PRRSV infection and suggests that targeting TREM2 could be a new approach in the control of the PRRSV infection., Author summary Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the most important pathogens in the global swine industry and is difficult to control. CD163 is a receptor that is required for PRRSV infection, and its expression is regulated by various inflammatory mediators. Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is a novel immunoregulatory receptor, which is involved in innate immunity and anti-inflammatory responses. Here we sought to elucidate whether TREM2 regulates CD163 expression to promote PRRSV infection via the inflammatory response. We found increased TREM2 levels upon PRRSV infection in vitro and in vivo in the lungs and lymph nodes of infected pigs. We demonstrated that the cytoplasmic tail of TREM2 interacts with PRRSV Nsp2 to promote infection. Additionally, TREM2 silencing triggers an early proinflammatory response via PI3K/NF-κB pathway, thus downregulating the expression of CD163, which leads to virus suppression. Our work provides a novel antiviral mechanism against PRRSV infection and suggests that targeting TREM2 could be a new approach for control of the disease.

Porcine alveolar macrophages without the CD163 SRCR5 domain are resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infection. However, whether the deletion of CD163 SRCR5 in MARC-145 cells confers resistance to PRRSV and interaction of which of the host proteins with CD163 is involved in virus uncoating remain unclear. Here we deleted the SRCR5 domain of CD163 in MARC-145 cells using CRISPR/Cas9 to generate a CD163ΔSRCR5 MARC-145 cell line. The modification of CD163 had no impact on CD163 expression. CD163ΔSRCR5 cells were completely resistant to infection by PRRSV-2 strains Li11, CHR6, TJM, and VR2332. The modified cells showed no cytokine response to PRRSV-2 infection and maintained normal cell vitality comparable with the WT cells. The resistant phenotype of the cells was stably maintained through cell passages. There were no replication transcription complexes in the CD163ΔSRCR5 cells. SRCR5 deletion did not disturb the colocalization of CD163 and PRRSV-N in early endosomes (EE). However, the interaction of the viral proteins GP2a, GP3, or GP5 with CD163, which is involved in virus uncoating was affected. Furthermore, 77 CD163-binding cellular proteins affected by the SRCR5 deletion were identified by LC–MS/MS. Inhibition of calpain 1 trapped the virions in EE and forced then into late endosomes but did not block viral attachment and internalization, suggesting that calpain 1 is involved in the uncoating. Overall, CD163ΔSRCR5 MARC-145 cells are fully resistant to PRRSV-2 infection and calpain 1 is identified as a novel host protein that interacts with CD163 to facilitate PRRSV uncoating.

In the present work, two dual-linker metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were prepared with metal salts, terephthalic acid and 4, 4′-bipyridine as precursors, and subsequently used for preparing cyclic carbonates from carbon dioxide and epoxides. These two MOFs were characterized by a number of techniques. The two MOFs prepared showed superior catalytic performance under solventless and co-catalyst-free conditions. In this sense, Co(tp)(bpy) achieved epichlorohydrin (ECH) conversions as high as 95.75% and chloropropylene carbonate (CPC) yields of 94.18% under optimal reaction conditions. The high activity of Co(tp)(bpy) was attributed to the co-existence of Lewis acidic and basic active sites on the catalyst derived from incompletely coordinated metal cations and uncoordinated pyridine groups, respectively. In addition, Co(tp)(bpy) maintained this high catalytic performance after five consecutive reaction cycles. A possible reaction mechanism was proposed based on the experimental results.

Bimetal mixed MOFs of [CoZn][(BDC)(DABCO)0.5] (CZ-BDO), [CoNi][(BDC)(DABCO)0.5] (CN-BDO), and [NiZn][(BDC)(DABCO)0.5] (NZ-BDO) were prepared under solvothermal conditions and further employed as highly active accelerants for converting carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates. The characteristics of the bimetal compounds were revealed via various techniques, including ICP-OES, XRD, FT-IR, Raman, XPS, SEM, EDS maps, N2 adsorption, TG-DTG, and CO2/NH3-TPD. The catalytic results revealed that CZ-BDO is superior to the other samples for obtaining a satisfactory chloropropene carbonate (CPC) yield. The excellent catalytic activity may be owing to the presence of a solid solution within the Co and Zn bimetal sample, which provides synergistic catalysis in the carbon dioxide cycloaddition. In addition, the synergistic catalysis was further confirmed by the NH3-TPD profiles, whereby the amount of CZ-BDO basic sites was obviously enhanced compared to the other samples. Furthermore, DFT calculations were also performed to reveal the synergistic catalysis between Co and Zn for the coupling reaction. Additionally, when the coupling reaction was carried out at 100 °C for 5 h in the presence of 0.5 wt% epichlorohydrin (ECH) as a catalyst at 3.0 MPa, 99.31% conversion of ECH and 97.05% yield of CPC were obtained over the optimal CZ-BDO sample. Moreover, the bimetal sample can also efficiently convert other epoxides into the corresponding cyclic carbonates.

A series of Ce1-xCdxO mixed oxide catalysts prepared by co-precipitation method were tested for synthesis of glycerol carbonate (GC) from glycerol and diethyl carbonate (DEC). The microstructural and physicochemical properties of the bimetal catalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, CO2-TPD, N2-adsorption, TG-DSC and 1H NMR. The results show that the spherical particles of CdO were uniformly dispersed on the surface of lamellar CeO2. Besides, a noticeable increase was observed in the moderate basic sites concentration, because more oxygen atoms were adsorbed on the bimetal sample surface which was attributed to Ce4+ doped into CdO lattice. The Ce0.7Cd0.3O sample annealed at 500 °C was observed with the highest catalytic activity. 96.84% of glycerol conversion and 100% selectivity to GC were obtained over this catalyst under the optimized conditions (5 wt.% catalyst of glycerol, 90 °C, 180 min, glycerol/DEC molar ratio of 1:3). Besides, it was found that the conversion of glycerol carbonate was synergistically accelerated by the moderate and strong basic sites.

As important glycerol derivatives, glycerol carbonate (GC) and glycidol (GD) have attracted increasing attention in recent years. In the present work, a series of new solid base catalysts were developed to catalyze the conversion of glycerol to afford GC and GD. These catalysts were prepared by loading KF on the porous La-Zr solid base catalyst and characterized using a series of methods. A large number of various basic sites were generated upon loading KF onto the La-Zr-600 support. The weak basic sites were assigned to the surface hydroxyl groups produced during the formation of LaOF, while the strong and super basic sites were related to the Lewis base produced due to the interaction between KF and the La-Zr-600 support. A glycerol conversion of 91.77% and a GC selectivity of 99% were obtained over 0.3KF/La-Zr, which displayed the best catalytic performance under the optimal reaction conditions. The excellent activity of these catalysts was attributed to the presence of the strong and super basic sites, which favor the transesterification of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate. The production of GD from GC decarbonylation was unfeasible at low temperature using the newly developed catalysts. A plausible reaction mechanism has been proposed based on the experimental results and characterization.

The Cyanobacteria was catalytically pyrolyzed in methanol atmosphere using magnesium-aluminum layered double oxide/ZSM-5 composites (MgAl-LDO/ZSM-5) as a catalyst. The largest liquid yield of 67.68% was obtained in methanol atmosphere, which was much higher than that obtained without methanol under same reaction condition. The Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometer data proved that the organics phase contained less O-compounds and N-compounds and more aromatic compounds. And the ultimate analysis results showed that this bio-oil had much higher HHV values and lower O/C molar ratio. The co-processing methanol atmosphere and bifunctional catalyst would be a promising means for improving the quality of bio-oil.

A highly shape-selective H[Zn,Al]ZSM-5/SiO2 composite catalyst was prepared by direct incorporating Zn species via isomorphous substitution into the zeolite framework and subsequent SiO2 deposition on zeolite surface. Its catalytic performance in methanol to aromatics (MTA) was compared with Zn/HZSM-5/SiO2 prepared by impregnation of Zn species and subsequent SiO2 deposition. The textural properties and acidic properties as well as the subsequent catalytic performances of the resultant catalysts in MTA reaction were obviously influenced by the introduction method of Zn species. H[Zn,Al]ZSM-5/SiO2 prepared by isomorphous substitution contained more inter-crystalline voids, which provided much space to resist deposition of coke and avoided quick blockage of micropore entrances. In contrast, Zn/HZSM-5/SiO2 prepared by impregnation contained sub-nanometric ZnO clusters at the pore entrances, which might restrict large molecule products diffusion and deteriorated the catalyst deactivation. Moreover, the sum of strong and medium acid sites in H[Zn,Al]ZSM-5/SiO2 was more than that in Zn/HZSM-5/SiO2, which meant there were more active sites for cyclization and aromatization steps in MTA reaction in the former. As a result, the lifetime of H[Zn,Al]ZSM-5/SiO2 was almost twice that of Zn/HZSM-5/SiO2. In addition, the enhancement in catalytic activity by Zn introduction and the improvement in para-selectivity in xylene by SiO2 deposition were also studied. Finally, nearly 100% methanol conversion, 95.6% para-selectivity in xylene and 18.2% para-xylene yield were simultaneously obtained over the stable H[Zn,Al]ZSM-5/SiO2 (with 24 h lifetime) in MTA reaction.

In the present work, melem based catalysts with various functional groups were developed by the modification of melem oligomers and tested for the chemical fixation of CO2 into cyclic carbonates. The characterization of these catalysts, by means of SEM, BET, XRD, IR, TG and XPS, verified the functional groups are successfully incorporated into the melem oligomers structure. Activity test demonstrated that melem oligomers grafted with both hydroxyl and quaternary ammonium groups (MOSB) presented the best catalytic performance. A propylene oxide conversion of 97.4% and propylene carbonate selectivity of 97.8% were obtained under the optimal reaction conditions. The simultaneous existence of edge defects, hydroxyl groups and quaternary ammonium groups in the structure of the catalyst are responsible for the high performance of MOSB. These three groups synergistically catalyzed the chemical fixation of CO2 to proceed with high efficiency. Moreover, moderate yield could still be obtained after five cycles. A possible reaction mechanism was proposed for the cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxides to form cyclic carbonates.

Hierarchical H[Sn, Al]ZSM-5 zeolites were successfully prepared by hydrothermal method with directly incorporating Sn species into framework of HZSM-5 zeolites followed by alkali treatment. The prepared samples were characterized by XRD, BET, SEM-EDX, TEM, NH 3 -TPD, FT-IR and Py-IR. The results indicate that Sn species were successfully incorporated into HZSM-5 zeolites. The catalytic performances of all prepared zeolites were evaluated by glycerol aromatization. The highest catalytic performance of GTA synthesis was observed with H[Sn, Al]ZSM-5 treated with 0.3 M NaOH (32.1% carbon yield of BTX aromatics and 13 h catalyst lifetime), which was prior to the pure HZSM-5 (17.8% carbon yield of BTX aromatics and 3 h catalyst lifetime). The remarkably improved performance in catalytic activity and stability of H[Sn, Al]ZSM-5/0.3AT zeolitize could be attributed to synergy effect between Sn species doped into HZSM-5 zeolite and the generated micro-mesoporous structure by alkali treatment.

[(CH3)2NH2][M3(BTC)(HCOO)4(H2O)].H2O (M–BTC, M = Mn, Ni, Co) were prepared under hydrothermal conditions and used as highly efficient catalysts for cycloaddition of CO2 with epichlorohydrin (ECH). The microstructure and physicochemical properties of the compounds were determined by PXRD, FT-IR, XPS, N2-adsorption, TG–DSC, NH3–TPD and CO2–TPD. 98.01% conversion of ECH and 96.05% selectivity to chloropropene carbonate was obtained over the Mn–BTC under the optimized reaction conditions (105 °C, 3.0 MPa, 9 h, 1.5 wt.% of ECH). Besides, the recyclability result exhibited the Mn–BTC compound can be utilized as least three times with a slight reduction in its catalytic ability. In addition, cycloaddition of CO2 with other epoxides and DFT calculation were also performed. The result exhibited the yield followed the order: ECH > 1, 2-epoxybutane > propene oxide > Allyl glycidyl ether, which was mainly determined by the energy of reaction.

A series of new SO3H-functionalized ionic liquids (ILs) were synthesized and characterized, which were successfully applied to catalyze cellulose to produce levulinic acid (LA) via one-pot reaction. The structure, thermal property, and acidity of ILs were characterized by NMR, TGA, and Hammett acidity measurement. The Hammett acidity (H0) of ILs increase in the following order: [BSim]H2PO4

The development of advanced luminescent materials is of great importance to the anticounterfeiting application and still confronts with lots of challenges. At present, most anticounterfeiting luminescent materials are based on a monotonous photoluminescence model, which is easily faked by substitutes. Therefore, in this work, a multimodal La4GeO8: Eu2+, Er3+ material is reported, which can emit red, purple, baby blue, and green light under the increased excitation wavelength from 250 to 380 nm. Meanwhile, the phosphor also shows green upconversion luminescence under the NIR (980 and 808 nm) laser irradiation. Moreover, the phosphor features excellent stability and humidity resistance against harsh conditions. Based on the integrated feature, a functional anticounterfeiting application is designed. Results demonstrate that the multimodal luminescent feature can be easily detected by using a portable ultraviolet lamp or NIR (808 or 980 nm) laser. The unique characteristic will be complicated to counterfeit and show high-level security in the field of advanced anticounterfeiting.

Hierarchical micro-mesoporous carbons were synthesized through the combination of soft templating and sol–gel process, which employed Pluronic F127 as soft template and glucose as carbon source. The obtained carbons were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and nitrogen adsorption/desorption for their morphology and textural properties, and then evaluated in the process of CO2 capture. The high specific surface area, large total pore volume and narrow pore size distribution could be easily obtained and tuned by this method. Moreover, the synthesized carbons were physically activated by CO2 to improve the CO2 adsorption capacity and effects of the activation temperature and activation time were systematically investigated. The specific surface area and the total pore volume of sample which was obtained under the optimal condition increased from 1413 m2/g and 1.02 cm3/g to 2543 m2/g and 2.21 cm3/g after CO2 activation. The sample also exhibited the value of CO2 adsorption varying from 2.32 mmol/g up to 3.60 mmol/g at 25 °C and 1.6 bar.

Nitrogen-doped carbon materials with enhanced CO2 adsorption were prepared by the salt and base co-activation method. First, resorcinol-formaldehyde resin was synthesized with a certain salt as an additive and used as a precursor. Next, the resulting precursor was mixed with KOH and subsequently carbonized under ammonia flow to finally obtain the nitrogen-doped carbon materials. A series of samples, with and without the addition of different salts, were prepared, characterized by XRD (X-ray powder diffraction), elemental analysis, BET (N2-adsorption-desorption analysis), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) and tested for CO2 adsorption. The results showed that the salt and base co-activation method has a remarkable enhancing effect on the CO2 capture capacity. The combination of KCl and KOH was proved to be the best combination, and 167.15 mg CO2 could be adsorbed with 1 g nitrogen-doped carbon at 30 &deg, C under 1 atm pressure. The materials characterizations revealed that the introduction of the base and salt could greatly increase the content of doped nitrogen, the surface area and the amount of formed micropore, which led to enhanced CO2 absorption of the carbon materials.

Nitrogen-doped carbon materials with enhanced CO2 adsorption were prepared by the salt and base co-activation method. First, resorcinol-formaldehyde resin was synthesized with a certain salt as an additive and used as a precursor. Next, the resulting precursor was mixed with KOH and subsequently carbonized under ammonia flow to finally obtain the nitrogen-doped carbon materials. A series of samples, with and without the addition of different salts, were prepared, characterized by XRD (X-ray powder diffraction), elemental analysis, BET (N2-adsorption-desorption analysis), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) and tested for CO2 adsorption. The results showed that the salt and base co-activation method has a remarkable enhancing effect on the CO2 capture capacity. The combination of KCl and KOH was proved to be the best combination, and 167.15 mg CO2 could be adsorbed with 1 g nitrogen-doped carbon at 30 °C under 1 atm pressure. The materials characterizations revealed that the introduction of the base and salt could greatly increase the content of doped nitrogen, the surface area and the amount of formed micropore, which led to enhanced CO2 absorption of the carbon materials.

Imidazolium ionic liquids functionalized UiO-66-NH2 MOFs were synthesized by two different approach, further applied as efficient catalysts for the catalytic conversion of CO2 into cyclic carbonates. The functionalized UiO-66-NH2 were investigated using various characterization technologies including XRD, NMR, FT-IR, XPS, TG-DTG, TEM, N2-adsorption, and NH3-TPD. The octahedron structure of UiO-66-NH2 becomes rough after UiO-66-NH2 interacted with 1-(4-carboxybutyl)-3-methylimidazolium bromide via amidation, while some small grains were formed around UiO-66-NH2 species when UiO-66-NH2 was functionalized by 1-(3-sulfopropyl)-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([SPMIM]Br) via the H2N– and HSO3– interaction. Moreover, when [SPMIM]Br was grafted onto the surface of UiO-66-NH2, a higher catalytic activity was found to exhibit 98.12% conversion of epichlorohydrin (ECH) and 98.23% selectivity to chloropropene carbonate (CPC) under optimized conditions (Initial pressure 2.5 MPa, 1.2 wt% catalyst of ECH, 95 °C, reaction time 8 h). No significant deactivation of the catalyst was observed after the [SPMIM]Br functionalized UiO-66-NH2 was reused three times. Furthermore, several additional coupling reactions were investigated with other epoxides as substrates.

A series of Cu–Ca–Al hydrotalcite derived catalysts were prepared by the co-precipitation method. Their catalytic activities were evaluated in the hydrogenolysis of glycerol. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, ICP, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD and H2-TPR. It was observed that the incorporation of calcium and aluminum in the Cu–Ca–Al catalyst improved the conversion of glycerol and promoted the generation of 1,3-PDO. This is due to the appropriate acidity and basicity of the catalyst, which is confirmed by NH3-TPD and CO2-TPD. The conversion of glycerol over the catalyst with a Cu–Ca–Al mole ratio of 1:3:5 was up to 73.2 % with 42.6 % selectivity to 1,2-PDO and 9.1 % selectivity to 1,3-PDO. Effects of the reaction time, reaction temperature and initial hydrogen pressure on the conversion and selectivity were systematically investigated.

A series of nickel-based catalysts with the hierarchical Y zeolite, which directly synthesized using sodium alginate (SA) as the template, as support were synthesized and evaluated on the aqueous-phase hydrogenation of furfural (FFR). Effects of reaction time (RTE), reaction temperature (RTP), hydrogen pressure (HP) and catalyst amount (CA) on the conversion of FFR as well as the yield of cyclopentanone (CPON) were investigated systematically. The results indicated that the hierarchical Y zeolite catalysts exhibited evidently high catalytic activity on hydrogenation of FFR toward CPON. The highest FFR conversion was up to 96.5% with a CPON yield up to 86.5%. The synthesized hierarchical Y zeolite had high crystallinity, big BET surface area (BETSA), abundant mesopores volume and appropriate acidity. The structural and textural properties of the hierarchical Y zeolite could be controlled by the amount of template SA.

By combing ZnO with the silicon hydroxyl in USY, a series of Cu/ZnO-USY catalysts with both acid and base sites were prepared with the precipitation method and used in the hydrogenolysis of glycerol to propanediol. The Cu/USY and Cu/ZnO catalysts were also prepared with the same method and used as blanks. These catalysts were fully characterized with TEM, SEM, BET, XRD, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD and H2-TPR. The combination of ZnO with the surface silicon hydroxyl of USY generated new “core–shell like” structure and introduced base sites. This newly formed structure made the Cu particle (10 nm) highly dispersed on the catalyst and the acid–base co-operativity accelerated the glycerol dehydration and led to higher glycerol conversion and 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) selectivity with much short time (5 h). Catalyst deactivation was also investigated, mainly caused by the increase of the Cu particle size during the hydrogenolysis process.

Methanol and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) mixture is present in the industrial manufacturing process of DMC, which is made from the catalytic oxidative carbonylation of methanol. The separation of methanol and DMC is important but difficult due to the formation of an azeotropic mixture. This work has been focused on a study of phosphoric-based ionic liquids (ILs) as green solvents for the separation of methanol and DMC in the extraction process. The knowledge of liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) of this mixture is essential for the design of the extraction separation process. For this reason, LLE data for the ternary systems {methanol + DMC + 1-methyl-3-methylimidazolium dimethylphosphate ([MMIM][DMP])} and {methanol + DMC + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethylphosphate ([EMIM][DEP])} were measured at T = (298.2 and 313.2) K and atmospheric pressure. The solute distribution ratio and selectivity of the methanol, derived from the tie-lines data, were calculated and analyzed in order to evaluate the capacity of the studied ILs as solvents in liquid extraction process. The experimental results show that the values of selectivity for the studied ILs follow this order: [MMIM][DMP] > [EMIM][DEP]. Finally, the experimental LLE data for the studied ternary systems were compared with the calculated values obtained by means of the non-random two liquid (NRTL) model. The NRTL model was verified to accurately correlate the experimental LLE data.