Riccardo Tassini

Aqueous biphasic treatment of some nitrocompounds with hydrogen in the presence of a biogenerated Pd-polysaccharide

A strain of Klebsiella oxytoca BAS-10, known to produce a specific exopolysaccharide (EPS), when grown aerobically in static mode in the presence of Pd(NO3)2, generated the species Pd-EPS that was used as catalyst precursor in the aqueous biphasic treatment of some nitrocompounds with hydrogen. Nitrobenzene was hydrogenated to aniline with almost quantitative yields and the catalyst, embedded in the aqueous phase, was used with success and with near the same efficiency in three recycling experiments. In the case of 1-iodo-4-nitrobenzene only nitrobenzene was obtained while the unsaturated nitro compound β-methyl-β-nitrostyrene afforded both the corresponding oxime and the saturated nitro derivative.

Hydrodechlorination of Aroclor 1260 in aqueous two-phase mixture catalyzed by biogenerated bimetallic catalysts

The PCBs are known recalcitrant and toxic pollutants and significant values of contamination could be found in water. PCBs can be hydrodechlorinated using Pd-based catalysts and hydrogen, but the research to identify more efficient heterogeneous catalysts, able to work in an aqueous phase, less sensible to deactivation and easily removable at the end of the treatment, remains a Original Research Article