Search

Ionic liquid lignins are prepared from sodium lignosulfonate by a cation exchange reaction and display glass transition temperatures as low as −13 °C. Diethyleneglycol‐functionalized protic cations inhibit lignin aggregation to produce a free‐flowing “ionic liquid lignin”, despite it being a high‐molecular‐weight polyelectrolyte. Through this approach, the properties of both lignin and ionic liquids are combined to create a dispersant and binder for cellulose+gluten mixtures to produce small microphases. Biocomposite testing pieces are produced by hot‐pressing this mixture, yielding a material with fewer defects and improved toughness in comparison to other lignins. The use of unmodified lignosulfonate, acetylated lignosulfonate, or free ionic liquid for similar materials production yields poorer substances because of their inability to maximize interfacial contact and complexation with cellulose and proteins., Hot off the press: Lignosulfonate is functionalized to create an ionic liquid with a glass transition temperature (T g) of −13 °C. After mixing with cellulose+gluten and hot‐pressing, composite materials are produced and have fewer defects and improved toughness in comparison to other lignins.

A high-throughput composite catalyst is prepared from porous carbon with an unconventional nanocube morphology decorated by nickel nanoparticles. Due to the advantageous properties of the designed carbon support, the composite combines a high surface area and a hierarchical pore structure with high functionality. Furthermore, the regularly shaped nanocubes allow for a good packing of a fixed-bed flow reactor, while the internal transport pores cannot be blocked and stay open for efficient column performance. The composite is employed as catalyst in the hydrogenation of 5 hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-dimethylfuran showing good catalytic performance and overcoming the conventional problem of column blocking.

A low-cost laser-based printing setup is presented, which allows for the spot-wise patterning of surfaces with defined polymer nanolayers. These nanolayer spots serve as a “solid solvent,” embedding different chemicals, chemical building blocks, materials, or precursors and can be stacked on top of each other. By melting the spot pattern, the polymer-embedded molecules are released for chemical reaction. This enables researchers to quickly pattern a surface with different molecules and materials, mixing them directly on the surface for high-throughput chemical synthesis to generate and screen diverse microarray libraries. In contrast to expensive ink-jet or contact printing, this approach does not require premixing of inks, which enables in situ combinatorial mixing. Easy access and versatility of this patterning approach are shown by generating microarrays of various biomolecules, such as glycans for the first time, to screen interactions of antibodies and lectins. In addition, a layer-by-layer solid-phase synthesis of peptides directly on the microarray is presented. Amino acid–containing nanolayers are repeatedly laser-transferred and reacted with the functionalized acceptor surface in defined patterns. This simple system enables a reproducible array production, down to spot-to-spot distances of 100 μm, and offers a flexible and cheap alternative to expensive spotting robot technology.

A safe and simple method to fabricate air-stable nickel nitride and nickel embedded in carbon and nitrogen matrix, with high surface area for catalytic applications, is presented. The new synthesis employs molten inorganic salts as the reaction media. The use of salt melt opens new possibilities for safe, simple, and cheap synthesis of metal nitrides and metals for energy-related applications.

In the search for alternative materials to current expensive catalysts, Ni has been addressed as one of the most promising and, on this trail, its corresponding nitride. However, nickel nitride is a thermally unstable compound, and therefore not easy to prepare especially as nanoparticles. In the present work, a sol-gel-based process (the urea glass route) is applied to prepare well-defined and homogeneous Ni3N and Ni nanoparticles. In both cases, the prepared crystalline nanoparticles (∼25 nm) are dispersed in a carbon matrix forming interesting Ni3N- and Ni-based composites. These nanocomposites were characterised by means of several techniques, such as XRD, HR-TEM, EELS, and the reaction mechanism was investigated by TGA and IR and herein discussed. The catalytic activity of Ni3N is investigated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, for hydrogenation reactions involving H2, and here compared to the one of Ni. Both materials show good catalytic activities but, interestingly, give a different selectivity between different functional groups (namely, nitro, alkene and nitrile groups).