Green Chemistry

MOF-303 is a promising water-harvesting sorbent that can take up water at low relative humidity and release it under mild heating. This metal–organic framework can be made at different scales using the four green synthetic methods described in this protocol.

Direct carbonization of zeolitic imidazolate framework-type metal-organic frameworks, as described in this protocol, results in nanoporous carbons that can be used for diverse electrochemical applications.

This Review summarizes advanced photocatalytic systems for value-added chemical production from renewable biomass, with specific attention on the efficient strategies for controlling the generation of key radical intermediates and their subsequent conversion towards desired chemicals.

Laboratories have a large environmental impact, with high levels of resource consumption and waste generation. In this article, the author discusses some of the actionable strategies that can bring real and impactful improvements, encompassing education, community engagement and the adoption of best practices by researchers. Building a global culture of sustainability in science will be crucial to reducing the carbon footprint of laboratories.

The pulp and paper industry produces approximately 50 million metric tons of lignin per year as a waste product. Here, lignin is shown to act as a photocatalyst for the solar-driven synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from H₂O and O₂ under visible light. Coupling this photocatalytic process with unspecific peroxygenases enables the enantioselective oxyfunctionalization of C–H bonds.

For microbial industrial lignin conversion, a key challenge is to overcome rate-limiting steps in the upper pathways of aromatic catabolism. This Review discusses the critical enzymatic reactions of aromatic O-demethylation, decarboxylation and hydroxylation for lignin valorization via biological funnelling.

Environmentally friendly binders for energy materials may improve sustainability, but can suffer from poor performance. Here a gel derived from graphene oxide and starch is used as a hybrid binder for supercapacitors, providing good rate performance and stability over 17,000 cycles.