New iron catalyst promises green
future for hydrogenation
A new iron nanoparticle catalyst
developed by researchers in Japan and Canada promises to drastically improve
the efficiency of hydrogenation, a key chemical process used in a wide array of
industrial applications. Cleaner, safer and cheaper than traditional rare
metal-based catalysts, the new, more environmentally friendly technique marks a
breakthrough for the emerging field of green chemistry.
Hydrogenation, the reaction of
molecular hydrogen with another compound or element, is one of the world’s most
highly studied chemical reactions, with industrial applications ranging from
petrochemistry, to food production, to pharmaceuticals.
Most such applications of
hydrogenation use rare metal catalysts such as palladium or platinum to speed
up chemical reactions. While highly efficient, these metals are expensive and
limited in supply, posing environmental and economic challenges.
To get around these problems,
researchers at McGill University, the RIKEN
Center for Sustainable Resource Science and the Institute for Molecular Science
developed their new technique using iron, a much less expensive and far more
abundant element. Iron has been ruled
out in the past due to the fact that it rusts in the presence of oxygen and
water, negating its catalytic effect.
The new technique, described in a
paper published in the journal Green Chemistry, produces iron
nanoparticles directly inside a polymer matrix, which protects the iron surface
from rusting while allowing the reactants to reach it and react. The resulting
system of polymer-stabilized iron nanoparticles in water is the first of its
kind: a safe, cheap and environmentally friendly catalyst system for
hydrogenation reactions.
“Our aim is to develop iron-based
catalysts not only for hydrogenation but also a variety of organic
transformations that can be used in future industrial applications,” explains
RIKEN researcher Dr. Yoichi M. A. Yamada, one of the authors of the paper. “If
rare metal-based catalysts can be replaced by iron-based ones, then we can
overcome our costly dependency on rare metals.”
Reference
- Reuben Hudson, Go Hamasaka, Takao Osako, Yochi M. A. Yamada, Chao-Jun Li, Yasuhiro Uozumi, and Audrey Moores. Highly Efficient Iron(0) Nanoparticle-Catalyzed Hydrogenation in Water in Flow, Green Chemistry. doi:10.1039/C3GC40789F
http://www.riken.jp/en/pr/press/2013/20130627_2/
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