Alina Simion

Mechanochemical degradation of chlorinated contaminants in fly ash with a calcium-based degradation reagent.

This report presents our results in a low-temperature mechanochemical hydrodechlorination process applied to fly ash coming from a municipal waste incinerator in order to efficiently remove all traces of PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs. We found that the most suitable degradation agent is a mixture of metallic calcium and calcium oxide. A sample of fly ash presenting a TEQ of 5200 pg g(-1) was completely detoxified (no traces of PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs detected) after ball-milling at 400 rpm over night.

Synthesis of imines, diimines and macrocyclic diimines as possible ligands, in aqueous solution

Although it is recognized that the presence of water is disadvantageous for imine synthesis, we demonstrate that such synthesis can be effective in completely aqueous media, without any catalyst and under mild conditions. Thus, aryl-aryl, aryl-alkyl, alkyl-aryl and alkyl-alkyl monoimines as well as a large variety of diimines are obtained by direct condensation of the corresponding carbonyl compounds and amines, in water. The same process is used to synthesize macrocyclic diimines starting from methylene, ethylene, trimethylene and tetramethylene glycol bis(2-formylphenyl ether) and ethylene-, trimethylene- and tetramethylene-diamine, some of these macrocycles being known for their chelating properties.

Rapid and Convenient Thioester Synthesis Under Phase-Transfer Catalysis Conditions

Various thioesters were obtained through an efficient phase-transfer catalysis method, by treating several thiophenols with different acyl chlorides, in a biphasic system composed of 10% aqueous NaOH and dichloromethane in the presence of tetrabutylammonium chloride. The thiolation reaction was complete in only 5 minutes, at 0°C.

O-Acylation of Substituted Phenols with Various Alkanoyl Chlorides Under Phase-Transfer Catalyst Conditions

Abstract Esterification of several types of mono- and disubstituted phenols with various mono- and dialkanoyl chlorides was performed in phase-transfer catalysis conditions, using tetrabutylammonium chloride in a mixture of aqueous NaOH and dichloromethane. The process is particularly efficient (almost quantitative yields) as well as rapid (only 5 min reaction time, at a temperature of 0 °C). GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

A direct method for the decontamination of a fly ash amended wet soil, artificially polluted with dioxins

AbstractWe report hereby the first method of direct treatment of a wet soil containing toxic polychloroderivatives. Using a system with metallic Ca and 5% Rh fixed on charcoal in methanol, soil samples artificially polluted with fly ash containing polychloro-dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), polychloro-dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (co-PCBs), and having 69.2% to 84.6% moisture content, were successfully treated and decontaminated. This treatment afforded excellent hydrodechlorination yields for the 29 most toxic congeners of PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs (98.3% degradation yield based on toxic equivalent quotient — or TEQ) after a 24 h treatment, at room temperature.

Convenient Direct Reductive Amination of Carbonyl Compounds in a Completely Aqueous Media

We report hereby a particularly efficient synthesis of secondary, and tertiary amines respectively, through a direct reductive amination process carried for the first time in a completely aqueous media.

Formation of Secondary or Tertiary Aliphatic Amines in Aqueous Media

Abstract Secondary and tertiary amines can be easily obtained from primary and secondary amines, respectively, in completely aqueous media, in the presence of a bicatalytic system formed of cheap commercial aluminum (Al) powder and 5% rhodium (Rh) or ruthenium (Ru) deposed on charcoal.

Dual Soil Decontamination Procedures

Pollutants actually existing in various types of soil, ranging from rural, agricultural soils to urban or factory soils, belong to a wide range of chemical compounds, both organic and inorganic. The modern decontamination methods were each specifically designed for a particular pollutant. Reagents and procedure conditions targeted only one particular contaminant, more rarely several pollutants, all usually belonging to the same family (e.g., several heavy metals or polychloro-p-dibenzodioxins and polychloro-pdibenzofurans). Most reviews on the subject presented soil decontamination processes under the same auspices: specific process with specific reagent for a specific pollutant. Unfortunately, soils are often cross-contaminated with various types of pollutants, which make the decontamination procedure much more complicated: indeed, for each contaminant, a certain procedure must be carried out. This transforms the whole decontamination process in a multi-step procedure, enhancing the costs. Therefore, any method that could realize a simultaneous decontamination for at least two different types of pollutants would be extremely advantageous. In the recent years, such methods made an interesting appearance in the environmental science and engineering literature. We wish to review these dual decontamination methodologies that deal simultaneously with at least one organic and one inorganic contaminant in the same soil matrix.