Sulfonic acid functionalized torrefied biocoal facilitates levulinates preparation: Reaction kinetics and process cost analysis

Catalytic oxidation of multi-class VOCs over nickel-modified Co3O4: Comparative kinetic and surface analysis

Upcycling of waste polycarbonate plastic to various fine chemicals over Cu-based catalysts with synergy between metallic Cu and acidic sites

Deep co-removal of chlorobenzene and Hg0 from flue gas: CaO-SO2 synergy restores catalytic functionality via a poison-against-poison mechanism.

Hierarchical porous hollow HZSM-5 catalyst for waste plastic upcycling to aromatics oil via synergistic optimization of pore structure and acidic sites

Positive effects of SO2 on NH3-SCR at high temperatures and their relationship with the structure of tungsten on Ce-W oxides.

Construction of cerium-based highly sulfur-resistant catalysts and NH₃-SCR reactions

Built-in electric field empowering dual lewis acid sites for efficient substrate selective adsorption to accelerate dehydrogenation kinetics in HMF electrooxidation

Porous activated carbon-based solid acid catalysts (AC‑SACs) have gained significant attention as promising materials for biomass conversion due to their high surface area, tunable porosity, and strong acidic functional groups. Biomass conversion is essential for the sustainable production of biofuels, including biodiesel, and other value‑added chemicals, offering an alternative to fossil-based resources. This review summarizes recent advances in the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic performance of AC‑SACs, emphasizing their role in key biomass conversion reactions such as hydrolysis, dehydration, esterification, transesterification, and catalytic pyrolysis. Synthesis strategies encompassing biomass pretreatment, carbonization, activation, and subsequent sulfonation or other functionalization methods are discussed in relation to their impact on hierarchical pore architecture, surface chemistry, and Brønsted/Lewis acidity. The review also examines primary deactivation mechanisms of AC‑SACs-such as -SO3H leaching, chemical derivatization of acid sites, and thermal degradation-and highlights regeneration strategies and design principles for improving long‑term stability. Future research directions are proposed, focusing on enhancing functional group stability, integrating regeneration into process design, and expanding AC‑SAC applications in sustainable chemical processes. The findings underscore the potential of AC‑SACs as versatile and environmentally friendly catalysts for biomass valorization and green chemistry applications.

Self-pillared ZSM-5 with enhanced acid site accessibility for CO2 hydrogenation to aromatics

Mechanism in co-cracking of bio-oil and VGO over Ce/Y: acid site regulation and structure-activity correlation with Ce modification

The sustainable production of green ethylene from bioethanol provides a realistic pathway to lowering the carbon footprint of conventional petrochemical routes. In this study, Fe exchanged H-ZSM-5 catalysts with a Si/Al ratio of 26 and different iron contents were synthesized and characterised using Powdered X ray Diffraction (PXRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Pyridine Infrared Spectroscopy (Py-IR), Ammonia Temperature Programmed Desorption (NH 3 -TPD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). Catalytic tests were performed in a fixed bed reactor by varying temperature between 200 and 300 °C and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) from 2 to 19 h −1 . The 3Fe ZSM-5 catalyst containing 2.3 wt% Fe achieved 98% bioethanol conversion and more than 95% ethylene selectivity at 280 °C and WHSV of 9 h −1 , while remaining stable for 56 h on stream. Acidity characterization revealed that Fe incorporation weakens strong Brønsted sites and generates Lewis acid sites, limiting secondary reactions and coke formation. Consistently, TGA showed around 11% less coke compared to the parent zeolite. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations using DMol3 identified Fe-O-Si motifs with Fe-O distances of 1.99 to 2.02 Å. • Fe exchanged ZSM 5 catalysts convert bioethanol to green ethylene efficiently under mild and practical conditions. • Tuning Fe loading adjusts Brønsted and Lewis acidity, thereby boosting ethylene selectivity and limiting the formation of diethyl ether. • Optimized Fe-ZSM-5 delivers near-complete bioethanol conversion and high ethylene selectivity for 56 h on stream. • Multi-technique characterization links structure, texture, and acidity to catalytic activity and coke resistance. • DFT calculations on Fe-O-Si sites reveal favorable pathways for ethanol activation and dehydration that align with experimental trends.

Topology-engineered dopamine-mediated flower-like gold nanoparticle adjuvants: Boosting immune responses and enabling sensitive immunoassays for albendazole residue detection.

Single-atom nanozymes (SANs) have recently been recognized as a promising artificial counterpart to natural enzymes. Nevertheless, their catalytic performance remains hindered by insufficient intrinsic activity, which stems from the substantial energy barriers associated with substrate activation and poor mass transport, limiting reactant availability. To address this, we designed a frustrated Lewis pair (FLP)-based Fe-N-C single-atom nanozyme (FLP-Fe-N-C SAzyme) with enriched pyridinic N vacancy defects to enhance oxygen adsorption for the construction of high-performance oxidase mimics. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the FLP structure, with Fe as Lewis acid sites and adjacent F regions as Lewis base sites, synergistically promotes oxygen dissociation and induces a pre-adsorbed oxygen atom beside the catalytic center. Such a newly formed structure induced by the FLP sites showed an optimized electronic and geometric structure of the catalytic center, lowering the energy barrier. In addition, the abundant pyridinic-N vacancies induced an enhanced oxygen adsorption, increasing the local oxygen concentration and thereby accelerating reactant availability. Hence, the FLP-Fe-N-C SAzyme remarkably enhances the intrinsic activity of the oxidase-mimicking SANs, achieving a significantly lower Km value than conventional Fe-N-C SANs.

Lewis acid catalyzed glucose isomerization is a vital step in biorefinery, but it's restricted by the limited catalytic toolkit and reaction equilibrium. Herein, we report that engineering Lewis acid sites in a mesoporous zeolite can greatly boost productivity. Incorporating a few of Sn species into KIT-6 zeolite with the assistance of phosphorylation delivered SnPO/KIT(x) materials with abundant Lewis acid sites and a few of Brønsted acid sites, while conserving the ordered mesoporous structure. Moreover, the Lewis acidic Sn sites have a coordination environment distinct from those in traditional zeolites and metal phosphates, as is crucial to facilitate isomerization and to control side-reactions. Rigorous experiments showed that the use of SnPO/KIT(80) catalyst in two-step isomerization process combined with adequate hydrolysis of ethyl fructoside attains a fructose yield of 71.5%, surpassing the state-of-the-art catalytic systems, along with good reusability and tolerance to high-concentration glucose. These findings highlight the great potential of precisely manipulating coordination environment of Lewis acid sites to boost catalytic performance.

Four air- and moisture-stable hypervalent organotin compounds [R2Sn(L)], where R = Ph (1), t-Bu (2), n-Bu (3), and Me (4), supported by polydentate pro-ligand (H2L), have been designed and developed. The compounds are characterized using FT-IR and NMR (1H, 13C, 119Sn) spectroscopy, HRMS, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The Gutmann-Beckett method assessed the Lewis acidity of all the compounds (1-4). All compounds (predominantly 1) showed prominent catalytic activities toward the hydroboration reaction. A variety of desired products are obtained with good to excellent yields. Exemplary catalytic activity, a significant turnover number, a wide substrate range, and mild reaction conditions have made these compounds suitable catalysts for the hydroboration reaction. Moreover, the Lewis acidic and basic sites of the compounds play an active role in the catalytic process, thus making them "bifunctional catalysts". A plausible mechanism is proposed for the catalytic process, supported by spectroscopic evidence and computational studies.

Endogenous Fe-Al self-doped biochar derived from rubber sludge for effective peroxymonosulfate activation: Dominant role of 1O2 and electron transfer.

Low-temperature catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) remains a significant challenge in environmental catalysis, especially under the conditions where water (H2O) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are present. In this work, we demonstrate that Brønsted acid sites (BAS) in protonated zeolites can effectively activate ozone (O3) to generate reactive oxygen species for efficient CO oxidation at temperatures below 150 °C. Systematic comparison among metal oxides, supported catalysts, and zeolites reveals that H-type beta zeolite (Hβ5, Si/Al = 5) exhibits the highest catalytic CO conversion, achieving >40% CO conversion at room temperature. Hβ5 shows higher resistance to deactivation in the presence of H2O and SO2 than Au and Pt-based catalysts. Kinetic studies reveal a linear correlation between CO conversion rates and the number of BASs, suggesting that BAS is anactive site for this catalytic system. Modulation Excitation Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (ME-DRIFTS) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations suggest that O3 interacts directly with a BAS to form reactive oxygen species, which react with CO to give carbon dioxide (CO2). Our findings provide new insight into non-transition-metal-based oxidation catalysis and offer a promising strategy for designing robust catalysts for industrial CO abatement under harsh flue gas environments.

Ru supported on modified H-ZSM-5 (Ru/DZ) with high dispersion of Ru and strong Brønsted acidic sites has been developed for the selective production of furfurylamine (FUA) via reductive amination of furfural (FUR) compared to its counterpart (Ru/HZ). The strong Brønsted acidic sites facilitate efficient protonation of the N-furfurylidenefurfurylamine (N-FFA) intermediate, which is responsible for the selective formation of FUA, as clearly demonstrated by in situ studies.

Defect engineering provides new opportunities to overcome the intrinsic limitations of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in photocatalysis. Herein, a cluster-defect engineering (CDE) strategy is employed to modify the pristine UiO-66 framework, wherein Zn incorporation followed by selective acid etching yields defect-rich A/(Zn,Zr)UiO-66 catalysts featuring hierarchical porous architectures and abundant Lewis (L) acid sites. Optical and photoelectrochemical analyses confirm that CDE broadens visible-light harvesting, narrows the bandgap, and prolongs carrier lifetimes. The synergistic interplay between L acid sites and photocatalysis over A/(Zn,Zr)UiO-66 results in an excellent photocatalytic performance in biodiesel production via oleic acid (OA) esterification with methanol (CH3OH) under mild reaction conditions, outperforming pristine UiO-66. Notably, the optimized A/(Zn,Zr)UiO-66-0.2 achieves a remarkable 99.3% biodiesel yield under mild conditions, alongside superior stability and reusability. Further, in situ spectroscopic investigations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations disclose that CDE lowers the coupling barrier of OA and CH3O• radicals by strengthening OA adsorption and activation as well as facilitating charge stabilization at unsaturated Zr sites. This work highlights CDE as an ingenious strategy for tailoring the electronic configuration and interfacial chemistry of MOFs, offering a versatile platform for visible-light-driven biomass upgrading and sustainable fuel production.