@article {46728, title = {Bifunctional rice husk-derived SiO2-Cu-Al-Mg nanohybrid catalyst for one-pot conversion of biomass-derived furfural to furfuryl acetate}, journal = {Fuel}, volume = {275}, year = {2020}, month = {SEP }, pages = {117953}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Developing one-pot reaction methodologies, which typically require multifunctional catalyst systems, is crucial for sustainable production of bio-derived fuels and chemicals. This work reports one-pot hydrogenation-esterification of furfural to furfuryl acetate using a bifunctional metal-based nanohybrid catalyst, composed of rice husk (RH) derived SiO2, Cu, Al, and Mg species (RHSiO2-Cu-Al-Mg). For comparison, the catalytic efficiency of RHSiO2-Cu and RHSiO2-Cu-Al were tested under similar reaction conditions. Various analytical techniques were used to elucidate the physicochemical, textural, and acid-redox properties of the catalysts. It was found that the RHSiO2-Cu-Al-Mg catalyst contains an optimum amount of acid and redox sites, as illustrated by NH3-TPD and H-2-TPR studies, respectively. Especially, Mg addition played a vital role in tailoring acidity of the RHSiO2-Cu-Al catalyst to promote in-situ esterification of furfuryl alcohol with acetic acid to yield furfuryl acetate. As a result, the RHSiO2-Cu-Al-Mg catalyst exhibited the best performance in one-pot conversion of furfural to furfuryl acetate, outperforming various noble metal/silica based catalysts. This study offers potential opportunities for the rational design of novel, bifunctional heterogeneous catalysts for efficient production of bio-derived fuels and value added chemicals.

}, keywords = {Acid-redox sites, Bifunctional catalyst, Bio-oil upgrading, One-pot furfural conversion, Rice husk silica}, issn = {0016-2361}, doi = {10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117953}, author = {Hashim, Luqman H. and Halilu, Ahmed and Sudarsanam, Putla and Umar, Yahaya Balarabe and Bin Johan, Mohd Rafie and Bhargava, Suresh K.} } @article {46704, title = {Bimetallic palladium nickel nanoparticles anchored on carbon as high-performance electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and formic acid oxidation reactions}, journal = {ACS Applied Energy Materials}, volume = {3}, year = {2020}, month = {SEP }, pages = {9285-9295}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

{Herein, we report the synthesis of carbon-supported palladium-nickel electrocatalysts (ECs) (Pd4-xNix/C ECs

}, keywords = {electrocatalysts, Formic Acid Oxidation, fuel cells, oxygen reduction reaction, palladium-nickel alloy}, issn = {2574-0962}, doi = {10.1021/acsaem.0c01622}, author = {Goswami, Chiranjita and Saikia, Himadri and Tada, Kohei and Tanaka, Shingo and Sudarsanam, Putla and Bhargava, Suresh K. and Bharali, Pankaj} } @article {46896, title = {Highly dispersed MnOx nanoparticles on shape-controlled SiO2 spheres for ecofriendly selective allylic oxidation of cyclohexene}, journal = {Catalysis Letters}, volume = {150}, year = {2020}, month = {OCT}, pages = {3023-3035}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Shape-controlled metal nanomaterials are considered as a unique class of catalysts because of their synergistic size- and shape-dependent catalytic properties. This work reports the synthesis of a novel size- and shape-controlled catalyst, consisting of highly dispersed MnOx nanoparticles (average particle size of 4.5 nm) on shape-controlled SiO2 nanospheres (250-300 nm) for selective cyclohexene oxidation using air as the oxidant under solvent- and base-free conditions. The MnOx/SiO2 catalyst exhibited an excellent cyclohexene conversion (92\%) with a high selectivity (96\%) to the allylic products (2-cyclohexene-ol and 2-cyclohexene-one) under mild conditions, outperforming various SiO2 supported CoOx, FeOx, and CuOx catalysts. The better performance of shape-controlled MnOx/SiO2 nanocatalyst is due to high redox nature of Mn, uniform dispersion of smaller sized MnOx nanoparticles, and synergetic interaction between MnOx and SiO2 spheres, as evidenced by XPS and TEM studies. Further, the MnOx/SiO2 catalyst could be reused at least 5 times for selective cyclohexene oxidation with a negligible loss in its catalytic performance, indicating the excellent stability of shape-controlled metal nanocatalysts in organic synthesis under economically viable and mild conditions.

}, keywords = {Cyclohexene oxidation, MnOx nanoparticles, Shape-controlled catalyst, SiO2 nanospheres, Structure-performance relationship, Synergetic interaction}, issn = {1011-372X}, doi = {10.1007/s10562-020-03205-z, Early Access Date = APR 2020}, author = {Rao, Bolla Govinda and Sudarsanam, Putla and Rao, Tumula Venkateshwar and Amin, Mohamad Hassan and Bhargava, Suresh K. and Reddy, Benjaram M.} }