Abdelkrim El Kadib

Chitosan Bio-Based Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Aerogel Microspheres

Recently, organic-inorganic hybrid materials have attracted tremendous attention thanks to their outstanding properties, their efficiency, versatility and their promising applications in a broad range of areas at the interface of chemistry and biology. This article deals with a new family of surface-reactive organic-inorganic hybrid materials built from chitosan microspheres. The gelation of chitosan (a renewable amino carbohydrate obtained by deacetylation of chitin) by pH inversion affords highly dispersed fibrillar networks shaped as self-standing microspheres. Nanocasting of sol-gel processable monomeric alkoxides inside these natural hydrocolloids and their subsequent CO(2) supercritical drying provide high-surface-area organic-inorganic hybrid materials. Examples including chitosan-SiO(2), chitosan-TiO(2), chitosan-redox-clusters and chitosan-clay-aerogel microspheres are described and discussed on the basis of their textural and structural properties, thermal and chemical stability and their performance in catalysis and adsorption.

Chitosan as a Sustainable Organocatalyst: A Concise Overview

Increased demand for more sustainable materials and chemical processes has tremendously advanced the use of polysaccharides, which are natural biopolymers, in domains such as adsorption, catalysis, and as an alternative chemical feedstock. Among these biopolymers, the use of chitosan, which is obtained by deacetylation of natural chitin, is on the increase due to the presence of amino groups on the polymer backbone that makes it a natural cationic polymer. The ability of chitosan-based materials to form open-network, macroporous, high-surface-area hydrogels with accessible basic surface sites has enabled their use not only as macrochelating ligands for active metal catalysts and as a support to disperse nanosized particles, but also as a direct organocatalyst. This review provides a concise overview of the use of native and modified chitosan, possessing different textural properties and chemical properties, as organocatalysts. Organocatalysis with chitosan is primarily focused on carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions, multicomponent heterocycle formation reactions, biodiesel production, and carbon dioxide fixation through [3+2] cycloaddition. Furthermore, the chiral, helical organization of the chitosan skeleton lends itself to use in enantioselective catalysis. Chitosan derivatives generally display reactivity similar to homogeneous bases, ionic liquids, and organic and inorganic salts. However, the introduction of cooperative acid-base interactions at active sites substantially enhances reactivity. These functional biopolymers can also be easily recovered and reused several times under solvent-free conditions. These accomplishments highlight the important role that natural biopolymers play in furthering more sustainable chemistry.

Dendrimer–silica hybrid mesoporous materials

Dendrimers and silica inorganic materials are two effective building blocks that have attracted growing interest in both fundamental and applied material chemistry. The fruitful association of these soft and hard skeletons resulted in an unlimited library of materials and nanodevices with different tailored properties. The aim of this review is to shed light on different strategies of combination of dendrimer–silica materials. Special attention has been accorded to the porosity control and the accessibility of the functional groups of these organic–inorganic hybrid mesoporous materials.

Viologen-Phosphorus Dendrimers Inhibit α-Synuclein Fibrillation

Inhibition of α-synuclein (ASN) fibril formation is a potential therapeutic strategy in Parkinsons disease and other synucleinopathies. The aim of this study was to examine the role of viologen-phosphorus dendrimers in the α-synuclein fibrillation process and to assess the structural changes in α-synuclein under the influence of dendrimers. ASN interactions with phosphonate and pegylated surface-reactive viologen-phosphorus dendrimers were examined by measuring the zeta potential, which allowed determining the number of dendrimer molecules that bind to the ASN molecule. The fibrillation kinetics and the structural changes were examined using ThT fluorescence and CD spectroscopy. Depending on the concentration of the used dendrimer and the nature of the reactive groups located on the surface, ASN fibrillation kinetics can be significantly reduced, and even, in the specific case of phosphonate dendrimers, the fibrillation can be totally inhibited at low concentrations. The presented results indicate that viologen-phosphorus dendrimers are able to inhibit ASN fibril formation and may be used as fibrillar regulating agents in neurodegenerative disorders.

Pd embedded in chitosan microspheres as tunable soft-materials for Sonogashira cross-coupling in water–ethanol mixture

Easy shaping of chitosan (CS) as porous self-standing nanofibrillar microspheres allows their use as a palladium carrier. Amino-groups on CS enable the modulation of Pd coordination, giving rise to three different support-catalyst interactions: weakly-coordinated Pd-CS in native CS, incarcerated Pd-CS-Glu in cross-linked CS and strongly-ligated Pd-CS-SH, obtained by the introduction of thiol arms in CS. These catalysts efficiently promote Sonogashira cross-coupling of a large library of functional substrates under mild and sustainable conditions (water–ethanol as solvent at 65 °C) and stand as recyclable, metal-scavenging catalytic systems.

Improving Catalytic Activity by Synergic Effect between Base and Acid Pairs in Hierarchically Porous Chitosan@Titania Nanoreactors

The beneficial effect of the bifunctional character of the chitosan@titania hybrid in heterogeneous catalysis was elucidated: considering a prototypical Henry condensation, Michael addition, and Jasminaldehyde synthesis, the cohabitation of a basic site (NH(2)) and an acidic site (Ti) in the same reactor provided clear activity and selectivity enhancements, with respect to the monofunctional acidic titania and basic chitosan counterparts.

Nanosized vanadium, tungsten and molybdenum oxide clusters grown in porous chitosan microspheres as promising hybrid materials for selective alcohol oxidation

The ability of chitosan biopolymer to coordinate vanadium, tungsten and molybdenum metallic species and to control their mineralisation growth provides a new family of surface-reactive organic-inorganic hybrid microspheres. Drying the resulting materials under supercritical conditions allowed the gel network dispersion to be retained, thereby leading to a macroporous catalyst with surface areas ranging from 253 to 278 m(2) g(-1). On account of the open framework structure of these microspheres, the redox species entangled within the fibrillar network of the polysaccharide aerogels were found to be active, selective and reusable catalysts for cinamylalcohol oxidations.

Copper Nanoparticles Stabilized in a Porous Chitosan Aerogel as a Heterogeneous Catalyst for C−S Cross-coupling

Cu nanoparticles (NPs) embedded into chitosan fibrils act as a heterogeneous catalyst for the C−S coupling of aryl halides and thiophenol in toluene. The catalyst can be reused under optimal conditions with some activity decrease from the first to the second use. Characterization of the reused catalyst shows that Cu NPs do not undergo agglomeration. Cu‐chitosan is more active for aryl iodides than aryl bromides and chlorides. The presence of chitosan in a large excess is detrimental for the catalytic activity, probably because of the increase of solvent viscosity. It was found that halides formed as byproducts in the reaction act as a catalyst poison and may influence the extent of Cu leaching.

Low temperature synthesis of ordered mesoporous stable anatase nanocrystals: the phosphorus dendrimer approach

The scarcity of low temperature syntheses of anatase nanocrystals prompted us to explore the use of surface-reactive fourth generation phosphorus-dendrimers as molds to control the nucleation and growth of titanium-oxo-species during the sol-gel mineralization process. Unexpectedly, the dendritic medium provides at low temperature, discrete anatase nanocrystals (4.8 to 5.2 nm in size), in marked contrast to the routinely obtained amorphous titanium dioxide phase under standard conditions. Upon thermal treatment, heteroatom migration from the branches to the nanoparticle surface and the ring opening polymerization of the cyclophosphazene core provide stable, interpenetrating mesoporous polyphosphazene-anatase hybrid materials (-P[double bond, length as m-dash]N-)n-TiO2. The steric hindrance of the dendritic skeleton, the passivation of the anatase surface by heteroatoms and the ring opening of the core limit the crystal growth of anatase to 7.4 nm and prevent, up to 800 °C, the commonly observed anatase-to-rutile phase transformation. Performing this mineralization in the presence of similar surface-reactive but non-dendritic skeletons (referred to as branch-mimicking dendrimers) failed to generate crystalline anatase and to efficiently limit the crystal growth, bringing thus clear evidence of the virtues of phosphorus dendrimers in the design of novel nanostructured materials.

Copper nanoparticles supported on graphene as an efficient catalyst for A3 coupling of benzaldehydes

Cu nanoparticles (NPs) supported on graphene (G) obtained by pyrolysis of alginate is a highly active catalyst for the A3 coupling of aldehydes, secondary amines and terminal acetylenes. Adsorption of Cu NPs previously formed by the polyol method onto dispersed G in ethylene glycol was found a suitable procedure for the preparation of a highly active catalyst. Cu/G undergoes gradual deactivation upon use due to Cu NP agglomeration and loss of 2D morphology of G. The occurrence of a small percentage of Cu leaching was also measured. Cu/G is more active than analogous catalysts in which Cu NPs have been supported on other carbon supports or metal oxides. Moreover, the performance of Cu/G ranks this material at the top of the reported catalysts for this type of coupling.