Effective new catalyst brings hope for cleaner energy, wastewater treatment, and green chemistry

A catalyst that significantly enhances ammonia conversion could improve wastewater treatment, green chemical and hydrogen production

12-Aug-2024 - A team of scientists have developed an effective catalyst with a remarkable ability to enhance the efficiency of ammonia conversion. The study reveals the catalyst's potential to significantly advance wastewater treatment, green nitrite and nitrate, as well as hydrogen production. Catalysts are ...

It takes two: cooperating catalysts provide new route for utilizing formate salts

“Creating efficient synthesis methods such as this one is important for working towards a sustainable society”

08-Feb-2023 - Two catalysts working in tandem enable inexpensive formate salts to perform difficult dearomative reactions, giving products potentially useful for drug development. Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) have developed a method that uses cooperating ...

Robots and A.I. team up to discover highly selective catalysts

Accurately predict - without the need for quantum chemical computations

07-Feb-2023 - Researchers used a chemical synthesis robot and computationally cost effective A.I. model to successfully predict and validate highly selective catalysts. Artificial intelligence (A.I.) has made headlines recently with the advent of ChatGPT's language processing capabilities. Creating a similarly ...

Simplified process shines light on new catalyst opportunities

23-Nov-2022 - Theory-guided development of an easier, more versatile process for synthesizing unsymmetric ligands provides new avenues of exploration in transitional metal catalysis. Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) have discovered the key to synthesizing a ...

Chemical reaction design goes virtual

Researchers aim to streamline the time- and resource-intensive process of screening ligands during catalyst design by using virtual ligands

16-Mar-2022 - Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery and Hokkaido University have developed a virtual ligand-assisted (VLA) screening method, which could drastically reduce the amount of trial and error required in the lab during transition metal catalyst development. The ...

New, highly efficient catalyst for propylene production

Innovative catalyst for the synthesis of propylene has potential benefits for the chemical industry and carbon recycling

08-Feb-2022 - Propylene is a colourless, flammable hydrocarbon gas that is an important raw material for the production of a variety of petrochemicals. Due to increasing demand and limited global supply, there is a strong need to develop new, efficient technologies for its production. Researchers at Hokkaido ...

A new tool to create chemical complexity from fatty acids

A new catalyst design enables unprecedented control over the modification of fatty acid derivatives that opens the door to creating useful substances in a green and efficient manner

25-Aug-2020 - Hokkaido University WPI-ICReDD researchers developed a modular catalyst that can accurately modify fatty acid derivatives in a hitherto inaccessible position. This enables the efficient production of valuable compounds from a renewable bioresource, whereas before we had to either rely on ...

Methane to syngas catalyst: two for the price of one

10-Sep-2018 - Hokkaido University researchers have created an improved catalyst for the conversion of methane gas into syngas, a precursor for liquid fuels and fundamental chemicals. Syngas, also known as synthesis gas, is a mixture made primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen and is used to manufacture ...

Hybrid catalyst with high enantiomer selectivity

10-Aug-2018 - A group of Japanese researchers has developed a technology to create a hybrid catalyst from simple-structured, commercially available rhodium and organic catalysts, which reduces chemical waste and produces molecules with high selectivity of an enantiomer, a pair of molecular structures that are ...

All in one against CO2

Elemental Boron is an effective photothermocatalyst for the conversion of carbon dioxide

13-Apr-2017 - A "self-heating" boron catalyst that makes particularly efficient use of sunlight to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) serves as a light harvester, photothermal converter, hydrogen generator, and catalyst in one. Researchers introduce a photothermocatalytic reaction that requires no additives beyond ...