On June 8 and 9, 2017, I gave two invited lectures at the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry (ZIOC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. The first lecture, “Sol-Gel Catalysts: Making Green Chemistry Possible”, focused on the practical outcomes of 25 years of research on sol-gel entrapped catalysts. The second, “Chemistry for the Bioeconomy: From Discussion to Action”, offered a critical insight to the forthcoming bioeconomy. Both lectures aroused much interest in the audience and ended with a vigorous discussion lasting about one hour. An outlook is provided in this study, whose core argument is that in the transition to the solar bioeconomy, chemistry will play a central role. In the latter economy, sunlight, water and wind replace fossil fuels to generate electricity that is then used for all energy end uses, while biomass replaces petroleum as raw material of the chemical industry with the oil refinery becoming a biorefinery.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent cause of dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Disease Association, there are over 37 million patients currently suffering from AD. To date, there is still no standard method for accurate AD diagnosis. Detection of biomarkers has become a new trend for disease diagnosis as research has shown that alternation of the expression profile of biomarkers occurs over 10 years before the development of any symptoms. Recently, there is a considerable development in the field of ultrasensitive detection assay for AD diagnosis. This perspective gives an updated review of the current state of development on body fluid-based detection assay for non-invasive AD diagnosis.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are the most promising candidates among all candidates for electrocatalytic water splitting, especially oxygen evolution reaction. Electrocatalytic activities of LDHs can be attuned by exfoliation, composition, morphology regulation and by intercalating some species. Moreover, exfoliation and flexible ion exchange can be tuned by the unique intercalation properties via flexible tunability of multiple metal cations. However, certain limitations like bulk thickness, large lateral size and low conductivity of LDHs decrease their uses in oxygen evolution reaction. In order to increase its electrocatalytic performances, researchers introduce different strategies such as combining the conductive materials to LDHs to introduce defects and tune the electronic structure of LDHs to enhance the active sites and increase intrinsic activity. In this minireview, we summarized current progress, strategies, challenges and prospective in the fabrication and designing of LDHs materials by various species.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been recognized as a promising energy conversion solution. The biggest challenges for the commercialization of PEMFCs are cost and durability. Although many efforts have been made on catalysts, the performance and durability of the membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) still cannot fully meet the targets established by the U.S. Department of Energy. Optimizing the catalyst layer to maximize the utilization of catalysts is a quite practical issue. In this paper, we reviewed the most recent advances on the component optimization for catalyst layers, including support materials, ionomers, and solvents. Based on the reaction mechanism on the three-phase boundary, enhancing the intrinsic properties of each component and optimizing their interactions can attribute a lot to the performance and durability of PEMFCs.

In the present work, eleven new complexes of europium and terbium with substituted azoles ligands were obtained as candidates for sensor materials for phosphinoxide. As a result, a new material with high sensitivity of up to 9%/µL was obtained.

Magnetic nanomaterials gained widespread interest due to remarkable future applications in various fields. The purpose of present work is to explore magnetic and optical properties of ultra pure superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Nowadays, superparamagnetism is receiving considerable interest in terms of biomedical and engineering applications. Herein, Fe3O4 superparamagnetic nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by pulsed laser ablation method in the presence of anionic surfactants in liquid environments. The structural, morphological, optical and magnetic properties have been studies using X Ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV-visible absorption, ATR-FTIR and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), respectively. The optical band gaps of as synthesized and after agglomeration Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been estimated in the range of 2.27—2.86 eV and 2.27—2.87 eV, depending on surfactant concentration. TEM image showed Fe3O4 nanoparticles possess mean diameter in the range of 5—25 nm. The saturation magnetization and coercivity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been estimated 0.36 emu·g^-1 and 33 Oe at room temperature, respectively. Therefore, as synthesized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles showed superparamagnetic character at room temperature.

The employment of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP)-protected platinum-ruthenium nanoparticles (3.2 ± 1.4 nm) as catalysts in the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride for hydrogen generation is reported. They have been prepared by co-reduction of two metal ions in ethanol/water mixture by an alcohol reduction method and characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, TEM-EDX analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. They are recyclable and highly efficient catalysts for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride even at very low concentrations and temperature, providing record average turnover frequency (TOF) value (549 mol•H₂/mol•cat•min⁻¹) and maximum hydrogen generation rate (16126 L•H2•min⁻¹ (mol•cat)⁻¹). Poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone)-protected platinum-ruthenium nano-particles also provide activation energy of 63.2 ± 2 kJ•mol⁻¹ for the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride.