Publications related to Corncob Biorefinery for Platform Chemicals and Lignin Coproduction: Metal Chlorides as Catalysts

Development of Sustainable Carbohydrate-Based Solvents by Acetal Functionalisation of Biomass

Organic solvents are ubiquitous in industrial and domestic applications from the production of pharmaceuticals to household consumer products. The negative impact of most traditional solvents, especially aprotic types, on the environment, health, and safet ...

EPFL2024

Nanogels with Metal‐Organic Cages as Functional Crosslinks

Kay Severin, Chaolei Hu

A dinuclear metal-organic cage with four acrylate side chains was prepared by self-assembly. Precipitation polymerization of the cage with N-isopropylacrylamide yielded a thermoresponsive nanogel. The host properties of the cage were retained within the ge ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2024

Photogeneration of Hydrogen: Insights from a Pt(II)-Complex Incorporated into a Covalent Organic Framework

Paolo Costa, Federico De Biasi

Pt(II)-based molecular catalysts stand as a prototypical system in hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) owing to their consistently elevated activity levels. Their integration into heterogeneous systems thus provides an ideal platform to develop catalytic ma ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag2024

Estrogenic, Genotoxic, and Antibacterial Effects of Chemicals from Cryogenically Milled Tire Tread

Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Kristin Schirmer, Benoît Jean Dominique Ferrari, Thibault Béranger Masset

Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) contain complex mixtures of chemicals and release them to the environment,and potential toxic effects of these chemicals still need to be characterized. We used a standardized surrogate for TRWP,cryogenically milled tire ...

2024

Lignin Hydrogenolysis: Phenolic Monomers from Lignin and Associated Phenolates across Plant Clades

Jeremy Luterbacher, Yuan Li

The chemical complexity of lignin remains a major challengeforlignin valorization into commodity and fine chemicals. A knowledgeof the lignin features that favor its valorization and which plantsproduce such lignins can be used in plant selection or to eng ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Selecting Suitable Near-Native Lignins for Research

Jeremy Luterbacher

There are several methods to isolate near-native lignins, including milled-wood lignin, enzymatic lignin, cellulolytic enzyme lignin, and enzymatic mild-acidolysis lignin. Which one is the most representative of the native lignin? Herein, near-native ligni ...

Amer Chemical Soc2023

An Overview of Heterogeneous Catalysts Based on Hypercrosslinked Polystyrene for the Synthesis and Transformation of Platform Chemicals Derived from Biomass

Lioubov Kiwi

Platform chemicals, also known as chemical building blocks, are substances that serve as starting materials for the synthesis of various value-added products, which find a wide range of applications. These chemicals are the key ingredients for many fine an ...

MDPI2023

Direct conversion of lignin to functionalized diaryl ethers via oxidative cross-coupling

Paul Joseph Dyson, Mingyang Liu

Efficient valorization of lignin, a sustainable source of functionalized aromatic products, would reduce dependence on fossil-derived feedstocks. Oxidative depolymerization is frequently applied to lignin to generate phenolic mono- mers. However, due to th ...

Nature Research2023

An explainability framework for deep learning on chemical reactions exemplified by enzyme-catalysed reaction classification

Daniel Probst

Assigning or proposing a catalysing enzyme given a chemical or biochemical reaction is of great interest to life sciences and chemistry alike. The exploration and design of metabolic pathways and the challenge of finding more sustainable enzyme-catalysed a ...

2023

Simultaneous local sensing of two chemical properties with dual soft probe scanning electrochemical microscopy

Hubert Girault, Andreas Stephan Lesch, Gregorio Bonazza

A new method for the rapid and economic fabrication of dual soft microelectrodes for Soft-Probe-Scanning electrochemical microscopy (Soft-Probe-SECM) and their use for the simultaneous local detection of locally generated species is presented. The process ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Lignin, from biomass waste to sustainable materials for food packaging, antiviral coatings and agriculture

Alice Boarino

Our planet has been challenged for years by our reckless use of fossil fuels, which has led to the ongoing climate change and energy crisis. The transition to the use of renewable alternative sources has now became urgent and inevitable. The valorization o ...

EPFL2023

Anionic character of the conduction band of sodium chloride

Klaus Kern, Abhishek Grewal

The alkali halides are ionic compounds. Each alkali atom donates an electron to a halogen atom, leading to ions with full shells. The valence band is mainly located on halogen atoms, while, in a traditional picture, the conduction band is mainly located on ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Extraction and controlled functionalization of lignin for materials applications

Stefania Bertella

Lignin is a renewable aromatic polymer that due to its abundance and unique chemical structure is a promising candidate to replace aromatic materials that are currently sourced from fossil oil. The same structure of lignin poses however drawbacks for its v ...

EPFL2022

Molecular dynamics simulations of the evaporation of hydrated ions from aqueous solution

Philip Robin Loche

Although important for atmospheric processes and gas-phase catalysis, very little is known about the hydration state of ions in the vapor phase. Here we study the evaporation energetics and kinetics of a chloride ion from liquid water by molecular dynamics ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

Effects of surface rigidity and metallicity on dielectric properties and ion interactions at aqueous hydrophobic interfaces

Philip Robin Loche

Using classical molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the dielectric properties at interfaces of water with graphene, graphite, hexane, and water vapor. For graphite, we compare metallic and nonmetallic versions. At the vapor-liquid water and hexa ...

AIP Publishing2022

Poisoning of Mn-Ce/AC catalysts for low-temperature NH3-SCR of NO by K+ and its counter-ions (Cl- /NO3- /SO42- )

Oliver Kröcher, Jie Yang, Davide Ferri, Rob Jeremiah G. Nuguid

Mn-Ce/AC catalysts for low-temperature NH3-SCR of NOx were deliberately loaded with various potassium salts (KCl, KNO3, and K2SO4) to investigate the influence of the counter-ions on the poisoning impact. Whereas K salts poisoning had only marginal impact ...

ELSEVIER2022

Model-based scale-up of a continuously operated consolidated bioprocess based on a microbial consortium for the production of ethanol

David Beat Dempfle

This work demonstrated that consolidated bioprocessing is a promising concept for conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol at industrial scale. CBP offers great cost saving potential, is feasible to be operated continuously and may be scaled up due to exten ...

EPFL2022

Developing structure-oriented models for enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass

Jessica Charlène Rohrbach

With the unsustainable use of fossil fuels increasing strains on human institutions and ecosystems, the development of a renewable energy alternative is of paramount importance. Second generation biorefineries, based on the production of fuels and chemical ...

EPFL2021

Toward waste valorization by converting bioethanol production residues into nanoparticles and nanocomposite films

Muhammad Farooq, Xun Liao

A "waste-valorization" approach was developed to transform recalcitrant hydrolysis lignin (HL) from secondgeneration bioethanol production into multifunctional bio-based products. The hydrolysis lignin (HL) was extracted with aqueous acetone, yielding two ...

ELSEVIER2021

Aldehyde-Assisted Lignocellulose Fractionation Provides Unique Lignin Oligomers for the Design of Tunable Polyurethane Bioresins

Jeremy Luterbacher, Raymond Gérard Buser, Florent Emmanuel Héroguel, Jean Thierry C Behaghel de Bueren, Chloé Wegmann

Thanks to chemical stabilization, aldehyde-assisted fractionation (AAF) of lignocellulosic biomass has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the production of largely uncondensed lignin. Depolymerization of AAF lignin via ether deavage provides aromatic ...

American Chemical Society2020