The present invention relates to the technical field of chemical engineering and catalysis. Provided are an application of an ionic liquid in propylene glycol ether synthesis and a method for synthesizing a propylene glycol ether. The ionic liquid is a methyl carbonate ionic liquid, and is used as a catalyst for catalyzing propylene glycol ether synthesis. The method for synthesizing the propylene glycol ether comprises the following steps: placing propylene oxide and an alcohol within a reactor to contact a catalyst, and heating the mixture in an enclosed environment to 50-200 C. to obtain the propylene glycol ether, wherein the catalyst is a methyl carbonate ionic liquid. The method for synthesizing propylene glycol ether provided in the present invention is a green synthesis technique, and does not require special production equipment. The method has simple and easily controllable processes, and can be used in industrial production and applications.

A process to form a cyclic olefin polymerization catalyst which includes contacting a metal alkoxide with a transition metal halide to form a transition metal precatalyst, and contacting the transition metal precatalyst with a metal alkyl activator to form the activated catalyst comprising a transition metal carbene moiety. A cyclic olefin polymerization process is also disclosed.

Novel crystalline porous materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and methods for their synthesis are provided herein. The MOFs include a M.sub.6(.sub.3-OH).sub.8(OH).sub.8(.sup.2,.sup.2-(O.sub.2C).sub.2cyclam).sub.8 cluster, and a metal atom coordinated to the one or more cyclam of the cluster, wherein M is Zr or Hf, and the metal atom is any one of Cu, Ni, Cr, Ru, Co, and Gd. The MOFs can be used as an adsorbent, alone or in a medium with other components, of CO.sub.2. The MOFs can also be used as a catalyst for the transformation of CO.sub.2 and epoxides to cyclic carbonates. The MOFs can also be used in the electrochemical catalytic reduction of CO.sub.2. The MOFs can also be used for photocatalytic CO.sub.2 reduction for the production of carbon-based fossil fuels. The MOFs can also be used for light-induced nitric oxide (NO) release. The MOFs can also be used as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents.

The present invention provides a method for preparing 1,5-pentanediol via hydrogenolysis of tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol. The catalyst used in the method is prepared by supporting a noble metal and a promoter on an organic polymer supporter or an inorganic hybrid material supporter, wherein the supporter is functionalized by a nitrogen-containing ligand. When the catalyst is used in the hydrogenolysis of tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol to prepare 1,5-pentanediol, a good reaction activity and a high selectivity can be achieved. The promoter and the nitrogen-containing ligand in the supporter are bound to the catalyst through coordination, thereby the loss of the promoter is significantly decreased, and the catalyst has a particularly high stability. The lifetime investigation of the catalyst, which has been reused many times or used continuously for a long term, suggests that the catalyst has no obvious change in performance, thus reducing the overall process production cost.

A method for the reaction of an isatin and cyclopropenone compound at low catalytic amount. In the presence of an amine compound and phosphite, the isatin and cyclopropenone are reacted in an organic solvent using a silicon amino rare earth compound as a catalyst to synthesize pyrano[2,3-b]indol-2-one compounds. In the reaction above, the amount of catalyst is few, and noble metal is not needed for catalysis. The present method can achieve preparation of the pyrano[2,3]indol-2-one compound efficiently and simply.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) having inorganic nodes that comprise an octahedral Hf.sub.6 cluster capped by eight .sub.3-ligands and having twelve octahedral edges, wherein the .sub.3-ligands are hydroxo ligands, oxo ligands or aquo ligands; and organic linkers connecting the organic nodes, the organic linkers comprising 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene units; wherein eight of the twelve octahedral edges of the inorganic nodes are connected to the 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene units are provided.

The present invention relates to ligands based on calixarenes, metal complexes including such ligands and their use as homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts.

The present invention describes a process to prepare catalyst systems based on metal salts, supported on natural polymers and co-catalyzed by organic bases, for the catalytic transformation of carbon dioxide to organic carbonates through cycloaddition reactions to epoxides. The advantages of the presented system can be summarized on the use of raw materials of low cost for the preparation of the catalyst system, minimal environmental risk due to the low toxicity of the materials used, in some cases biodegradable such as the natural polymers, as well as high catalytic efficiency, reaching selectivities up to 100% and in some cases quantitative yields.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) having inorganic nodes that comprise an octahedral Hf.sub.6 cluster capped by eight .sub.3-ligands and having twelve octahedral edges, wherein the .sub.3-ligands are hydroxo ligands, oxo ligands or aquo ligands; and organic linkers connecting the organic nodes, the organic linkers comprising 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene units; wherein eight of the twelve octahedral edges of the inorganic nodes are connected to the 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene units are provided.

The present invention relates to a new process for the production of D-sorbitol.