Prof. Feng Wang joins the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) of ACS Catalysis, starting in January 2020. The EAB is the group that advises the editorial team on the direction of the journal, and members play a key role refereeing papers as well, being occasionally asked to act as adjudicative referees in tough cases.Link: https://pubs.acs.org/page/accacs/editors.htm

Column: News Time: 2019-11-28
Feng Wang got 2020 Winners of the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Awards.

Column: News Time: 2019-11-12
Nengchao Luo got his doctoral degree on November 12th, 2019. Congratulation

Column: News Time: 2019-11-11
Jinghua An got her doctoral degree on November 11th, 2019. Congratulation!

Depolymerization of lignin meets the difficulty in cleaving the robust aryl ether bond. Herein, through installing an internal nucleophile in the β-O-4′ linkage, the selective cleavage of aryl ether was realized by the intramolecular substitution on aryl rings affording non-phenolic arylamine products. In particular, nitrogen-modified lignin models and lignin samples were employed to generate the iminyl radical under photocatalytic reduction, which acted as the internal nucleophile inducing aryl migration from O to the N atom. The following hydrolysis released primary arylamines and α-hydroxy ketones. Mechanism studies including electron spin resonance (ESR), fluorescence quenching experiments, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations proved the aryl migration pathway. This method enables access to non-phenolic arylamine products from lignin conversion.

We demonstrate the coproduction of H₂ and diesel fuel precursors from lignocellulose-derived methylfurans via acceptorless dehydrogenative C−C coupling, using a Ru-doped ZnIn₂S₄ catalyst a​nd driven by visible light. With this chemistry, up to 1.04 g gcatalyst⁻¹ h⁻¹ of diesel fuel precursors (~41% of which are precursors of branched-chain alkanes) are produced with selectivity higher than 96%, together with 6.0  mmol gcatalyst⁻¹ h⁻¹ of H₂. Subsequent hydrodeoxygenation reactions yield the desired diesel fuels comprising straight- and branched-chain alkanes. We suggest that Ru dopants, substituted in the position of indium ions in the ZnIn₂S₄ matrix, improve charge separation efficiency, thereby accelerating C−H activation for the coproduction of H₂ and diesel fuel precursors.

Selective conversion of an aqueous solution of mixed oxygenates produced by biomass fermentation to a value-added single product is pivotal for commercially viable biomass utilization. However, the efficiency and selectivity of the transformation remains a great challenge. Herein, we present a strategy capable of transforming ~70% of carbon in an aqueous fermentation mixture (ABE: acetone–butanol–ethanol–water) to 4-heptanone (4-HPO), catalyzed by tin-doped ceria (Sn-ceria), with a selectivity aas high as 86%. Water (up to 27 wt%), detrimental to the reported catalysts for ABE conversion, was beneficial for producing 4-HPO, highlighting the feasibility of the current reaction system. In a 300 h continuous reaction over 2 wt% Sn-ceria catalyst, the average 4-HPO selectivity is maintained at 85% with 50% conversion and > 90% carbon balance. This strategy offers a route for highly efficient organic-carbon utilization, which can potentially integrate biological and

The increasing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are primarily driven by the rapid expansion of energy-intensive sectors such as the chemical industry. This work selects ethylene, one of the most important chemicals, as a model study to represent the low-carbon roadmap of chemical production. Four strategies improving the efficiency of fossil resource usage, developing the technology for carbon capture and storage (CCS), CO₂ chemical conversion, and converting biomass resources into chemicals, are used to reduce CO₂ emissions. A comprehensive analysis of the life cycle CO₂ emissions of different ethylene production routes has been performed to compare their emission reduction potential. The results indicate that the BMTO (biomass to olefins via methanol-to-olefins) pathway releases the least CO₂ (− 1.3 t CO₂/t ethylene)