Selective Butene Formation in Direct Ethanol-to-C3+-Olefin Valorization over Zn–Y/Beta and Single-Atom Alloy Composite Catalysts Using In Situ-Generated Hydrogen

Polymers without Petrochemicals: Sustainable Routes to Conventional Monomers

Access to a wide range of plastic materials has been rationalized by the increased demand from growing populations and the development of high-throughput production systems. Plastic materials at low costs with reliable properties have been utilized in many everyday products. Multibillion-dollar companies are established around these plastic materials, and each polymer takes years to optimize, secure intellectual property, comply with the regulatory bodies such as the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals and the Environmental Protection Agency and develop consumer confidence. Therefore, developing a fully sustainable new plastic material with even a slightly different chemical structure is a costly and long process. Hence, the production of the common plastic materials with exactly the same chemical structures that does not require any new registration processes better reflects the reality of how to address the critical future of sustainable plastics. In this review, we have highlighted the very recent examples on the synthesis of common monomers using chemicals from sustainable feedstocks that can be used as a like-for-like substitute to prepare conventional petrochemical-free thermoplastics.

Recent progress in single-atom alloys: Synthesis, properties, and applications in environmental catalysis

Heterogeneous catalysts have made outstanding advancements in pollutants elimination as well as energy and materials production over the past decades. Single-atom alloys (SAAs) are novel environmental catalysts prepared by dispersing single metal atoms on other metals. Integrating the advantages of single atom and alloys, SAAs can maximize atom utilization, reduce the use of noble metals and enhance catalytic performances. The synergistic, electronic and geometric effects of SAAs are effective to modulate the activation energy and adsorption strength, consequently breaking linear scaling relationship as well as offering an excellent catalytic activity and selectivity. Moreover, SAAs possess clear atomic structure, active sites and reaction mechanisms, providing an opportunity to tailor catalytic properties and develop effective environmental catalysts. In this review, we provide the recent progress on synthetic strategies, catalytic properties and catalyst design of SAAs. Furthermore, the applications of SAAs in environmental catalysis are introduced towards catalytic conversion and elimination of different air pollutants in many important reactions including (electrochemical) oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dehydrogenation of VOCs, CO₂ conversion, NO_x reduction, CO oxidation, SO₃ decomposition, etc. Finally, challenges and opportunities of SAAs in a broad environmental field are proposed.

Selective direct conversion of aqueous ethanol into butadiene via rational design of multifunctional catalysts

The highly efficient multifunctional 3% Y–Zn0.02Zr0.02/Si-beta catalyst possessed superior butadiene selectivity and ethanol conversion in direct conversion of aqueous ethanol into butadiene.