News

23
Jan 2017
Two recent papers are now published in ACS Catalysis!
In first paper, Lei Tao developed a mild and convenient synthesis method of pyrroles via direct condensation of an equimolar amount of structurally diverse anilines with biobased furans catalyzed by a simple and efficient solid acid H form zeolite Y catalyst. The protocol tolerates a large variety of functional groups and offers a general and versatile method for scale-up synthesis of a variety of N-substituted pyrrole compounds.
In another paper， we found that the hydrophobic characteristics of the underlying supports can be advantageously utilized to enhance the efficiency of palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) for the dehydrogenative coupling of organosilanes. As a result of this prominent surface wettability control, the modulated catalyst showed a significantly higher level of efficiency and durability characteristics toward the dehydrogenative condensation of organosilanes with water, alcohols, or amines in comparison to existing catalysts.
Both of these papers are published in ACS Catalysis.
8
Jan 2016
Two recent publications are now available online!
Two new papers from the group are now online. The first paper focus on the transformation from furfural (FFA) to cyclopentanone (CPO). Gaoshuo Zhang developed an efficient approach which can achieve this trasformation in water quantitatively, employing H2 as the clean reductant and supported gold nanoparticles as a simple yet versatile catalyst. The use of anatase TiO2 featuring only mild Lewis acidic sites as the underlying support is essential, not only for preventing undesirable side reactions, but also for attaining high CPO selectivity. The feasibility of using biogenic CPO and CO2 as benign carbon sources to synthesize the industrially important feedstock dimethyl adipate is also demonstrated.
The second paper is about the reductive amination (RA) of aldehydes and nitroarenes. Qi Zhang developed A single phase rutile titania supported gold catalyst which can achieve this gas-free RA by using stoichiometric amounts of formic acid as the terminal reductant in neat water under mild reaction conditions.
Both of these papers are published in Green Chemistry.
29
Jul 2015
Versatile gold-formic acid catalytic system for the reductive tranformation of nitro compounds.
The paper titled "Gold-catalyzed reductive transformation of nitro compounds using formic acid: mild, efficient, and versatile" is now available online in ChemSusChem.Congratulations! In this paper, Lei Yu and Qi Zhang developed a versatile set of mild catalytic conditions utilizing a single gold-based solid catalyst that enables the direct preparation of four distinct and important amine derivatives (amines, formamides, benzimidazoles, and dimethlyated amines) from formic acid (FA) and nitro starting materials with high level of chemoselectivity.
1
Jun 2015
Haiqian Li's paper on CO-mediated reductive coupling of nitroarenes to azo compounds is now online!
Haiqian Li's paper titled "Deoxygenative coupling of nitroarenes to synthesize aromatic azo compounds with CO using supported gold catalysts" is now available online in Chemical Communications.Congratulations! In this paper, Li developed a facile and efficient catalytic system based on mesostructured ceria-supported gold (Au/meso-CeO2).This efficient catalytic system can be used for the synthesis of various aromatic azo compounds by reductive coupling of the corresponding nitroaromatics, using CO as the sole deoxygenative reagent, under additive-free and mild reaction conditions.
6
Feb 2015
Lei Tao's paper on selective reductive transformation of quinolines is now online!
Lei Tao's paper titled "Heterogeneous Gold-Catalyzed Selective Reductive Transformation of Quinolines with Formic Acid" is now available online in Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis. This is Lei's first publication in the Cao group and first publication of 2015. Congratulations! In this paper, Lei found single phase rutile titania supported gold nanoparticles (Au/TiO2-R) are efficient and versatile catalysts for chemo- and regioselective transfer hydrogenation of quinoline derivatives to 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines (THQs) using formic acid (FA) as a safe and convenient hydrogen source under mild conditions. Furthermore, N-formyltetrahydroquinolines (FTHQ) can also be synthesized from quinolines by this one-pot, gold-catalyzed reductive N-formylation protocol.
5
Nov 2014
Welcome Dr. Xiaoyue Wan!
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Xiaoyue Wan from Xiamen University as she begins her postdoc with the group.She will be continuing her work here on the transformation of biomass into renewable chemicals.
3
Nov 2014
Dr. Qingyuan Bi's paper on rechargeable formate-based hydrogen battery is now online!
Dr. Qingyuan Bi's paper titled "An Aqueous Rechargeable Formate-Based Hydrogen Battery Driven by Heterogeneous Pd Catalysis" is now available online in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. In this paper, we first developed an additive-free rechargeable hydrogen battery (RHB) which is based on repetitive cycles operated between aqueous formate dehydrogenation (discharging) by using heterogeneous catalytic system. The results highlight the substantialpromise that designed heterogeneous metal-based catalyst hold for reversible and controlled H2 delivery, especially in the field of energy storage for sustainable energy supply.
28
Oct 2014
Xiang Liu and Shushuang Li win the National Scholarship.
Congratulations to Xiang Liu and Shushuang Li on winning the National Scholarship for their hard work in 2013.
13
Oct 2014
Prof. Yong Cao wins National Catalysis Prize for Young Scientists in 2014.
Congratulations to Prof. Cao for winning the National Catalysis Prize for Young Scientists at the 17th National Conference of on Catalysis of China in Hangzhou.
15
Sep 2014
Welcome Jiandong Lin and Mingming Zhu!
We are pleased to welcome Jiandong Lin and Mingming Zhu join our group. Jiandong has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry at Fudan University. Mingming joins us from Nanchang University in Jiangxi where she obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Chemistry.