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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nature has always represented the main inspiration source for chemists. During a long design and optimization period (over 4 billion years), nature has realized hybrid organic/inorganic nanosystems, able to act as optimal catalysts towards many different organic reactions. These catalytic nanosystems are called enzymes. In recent decades, taking into account the enzymatic mechanism, researchers developed a wide range of synthetic catalysts, with nanoscopic dimensions, which mimic the enzymatic reaction: the biomimetic catalysts.

This Special Issue will collect recent developments in this field, highlighting the employing of new nanostructured organic and inorganic catalysts. Particular attention will be devoted to new eco-friendly nanosystems, able to work in “green-conditions”. In fact, organic solvents have been commonly used as reaction media both by research laboratories and by industries; however, to reduce the ecological impact and the manufacturing costs, today, the target is to reduce the number and amount of solvents, moving to more “green” media.

There will be a focus on contributions regarding chiral catalysts, due to the importance of asymmetric reactions in the organic synthesis, in particular for the wide applications in pharmaceutics, agricultural chemicals, and functional materials.

The scope of this Special Issue covers, but is not limited to, the following topics:

Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis
Biomimetic catalysis
Organocatalysis by supramolecular assemblies
Metal–Organic framework
Graphene derivatives as an efficient scaffold for catalysis
Metal-Nanoparticles as catalysts
Nanoporous materials
Catalysis at the interfaces
Supramolecular catalysis

Dr. Giuseppe Trusso
Dr. Andrea Pappalardo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Nanocatalyst
Biomimetic catalysis
Asymmetric reactions
Heterogeneous catalysis
Homogeneous catalysis
Supramolecular chemistry
Organocatalysis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 3611 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bioinspired Polymer-Bound Organocatalysts for Direct Asymmetric Aldol Reaction: Experimental and Computational Studies

by Ganhong Du, Jun Ling, Fangyu Hu, Keyuan Liu, Long Ye and Liming Jiang

Catalysts 2019, 9(5), 398; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal9050398 - 28 Apr 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2494

Abstract

A series of poly(2-oxazoline) (POX) derivatives bearing prolinamide pendants were designed as organocatalysts and evaluated in the direct asymmetric aldol reaction between aromatic aldehydes and cyclic ketones. The structural variation of the alkyl spacer connecting the polymer backbone with the catalytic unit was applied so as to deduce structure–performance relationships combined with comparable experiments from model catalysts. Results showed that the POX-bound prolinamides can promote the aldol reaction more effectively as compared to their small-molecular and non-POX-bound analogs. The catalyst P3 containing the pyrrolidine moiety closer to the tertiary amide backbone exhibited the overall best catalytic efficiency, affording anti-products in 84% yield with 89% ee in the representative aldol addition of cyclohexanone to 4-nitrobenzaldehyde at a 10 mol.% catalyst loading. Furthermore, the influence of trifluoroacetic acid as an additive on the asymmetric transformation was investigated. Theoretical calculations revealed that the protonation of the aldehyde carbonyl group switched the activation mode of the aldol acceptor through hydrogen bond interactions, thereby changing the relative energy barrier of the enamine/aldehyde reaction transition states, which accounted well for the significant improvement in the enantioselectivity of the acidic additives observed experimentally. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanocatalysts: Organic/Inorganic Nanosystems as Biomimetic Catalysts)

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Graphical abstract

Review

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21 pages, 5539 KiB

Open AccessReview

Catalysis inside Supramolecular Capsules: Recent Developments

by Andrea Pappalardo, Roberta Puglisi and Giuseppe Trusso Sfrazzetto

Catalysts 2019, 9(7), 630; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal9070630 - 23 Jul 2019

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5391

Abstract

In the last decades, supramolecular chemists have developed new molecular receptors able to include a wide range of guests. In addition, they have designed synthetic hosts able to form capsules having an internal volume of thousands of Å³. This inner space shows different features from the bulk solution. In particular, this environment has recently been employed to perform chemical reactions, obtaining reaction products different from the “normal” conditions. These supramolecular capsules act as nanoreactors, catalyzing many chemical transformations. This review collects the recent developments (since 2015) in this field, focusing on supramolecular capsules based on resorcinarene hexameric capsules and metal-cage capsules. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanocatalysts: Organic/Inorganic Nanosystems as Biomimetic Catalysts)

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