Compositions of manganese accumulating plants.

The present invention relates to novel manganese complexes and their use, inter alia, for homogeneous catalysis in (1) the preparation of imine by dehydrogenative coupling of an alcohol and amine; (2) C—C coupling in Michael addition reaction using nitriles as Michael donors; (3) dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols to give esters and hydrogen gas (4) hydrogenation of esters to form alcohols (including hydrogenation of cyclic esters (lactones) or cyclic di-esters (di-lactones), or polyesters); (5) hydrogenation of amides (including cyclic dipeptides, lactams, diamide, polypeptides and polyamides) to alcohols and amines (or diamine); (6) hydrogenation of organic carbonates (including polycarbonates) to alcohols or hydrogenation of carbamates (including polycarbamates) or urea derivatives to alcohols and amines; (7) dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to ketones; (8) amidation of esters (i.e., synthesis of amides from esters and amines); (9) acylation of alcohols using esters; (10) coupling of alcohols with water and a base to form carboxylic acids; and (11) preparation of amino acids or their salts by coupling of amino alcohols with water and a hydrogenative coupling of alcohols and amines; (13) preparation of imides from diols. ##STR00001## ##STR00002##

Provided is an ionic solid having pores for incorporating a substance therein.

The invention provides a method comprising hydrogenating a ketone in the presence of (i) a base, (ii) hydrogen gas and (iii) a catalyst comprising a charged or neutral complex of formula (I):

##STR00001## wherein: Mn is a manganese atom or a manganese ion in oxidation state (I) to (VII); R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are each independently optionally substituted C.sub.4-8monocyclic aryl or C.sub.3-7monocyclic heteroaryl moieties; -Fc- denotes a ferrocene (bis(η.sup.5-cyclopentadienyl)iron) moiety covalently bonded via adjacent carbon atoms of one of the two cyclopentadienyl moieties, and which may be optionally further substituted, in either cyclopentadienyl ring; —Z— is an alkylene linker of the formula —(CH.sub.2).sub.1-6— in which one or more of the hydrogen atoms of the alkylene may be independently substituted; —N.sup.x is an optionally substituted nitrogen-containing heteroaryl moiety, with the proviso that at least one of R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and —N.sup.x is substituted one or more times with an electron donating group; and L.sup.1-L.sup.3 constitute one, two or three ligands, wherein, when the complex of formula (I) is charged, the catalyst comprises one or more additional counterions to balance the charge of the complex.

Bi-functional nanohybrids including a nanoparticle to the surface of which are covalently coupled chemical functions, one of which being biorthogonal, and their use as support for catalysts.

Disclosed is a method for synthesizing dihydroxyl-terminated polyphenylene oxide oligomer. The method for synthesizing dihydroxyl-terminated polyphenylene oxide oligomer, comprising oxidatively copolymerizing monohydric phenol and dihydric phenol in the presence of a metal-polyethyleneimine complex as a catalyst, to obtain the dihydroxyl-terminated polyphenylene oxide oligomer. The synthesizing method of the present disclosure uses a metal-polyethyleneimine complex as a catalyst, which has a milder catalytic activity, can effectively promote the reaction between the dihydric phenol and the monohydric phenol, increases the hydroxyl content of the product, meanwhile reduces the amount of the residual dihydric phenol monomer in the product, so that the quality of the product can be improved. The dihydroxyl-terminated polyphenylene oxide oligomer prepared can be used as additive and copolymerization block in other thermoplastic plastics, thermoplastic elastomers and thermosetting materials, thereby improving the performances of the material, such as thermal performance, adhesion, mechanical property, chemical resistance, and electrical property.

The invention concerns a method for manufacturing of an electrocatalyst comprising a porous carbon support material, a catalytic material in the form of at least one type of metal, and macrocyclic compounds chemically bound to the carbon support and capable of forming complexes with single metal ions of said metal or metals, said method comprising the steps of: i) providing a template capable of acting as pore structure directing agent during formation of a highly porous electrically conducting templated carbon substrate, ii) mixing the template with one or several precursor substances of the catalytic material, the macrocyclic compounds and carbon, iii) exposing the mixture of the template and the precursor substances to a carbonization process during which the precursors react and transform the mixture into a carbonized template composite in winch the carbon part of the composite is chemically bound to macrocyclic compounds present in complexes with the metal or metals. The invention also concerns an electrocatalyst for electrochemical reactions, a method for manufacturing of a membrane electrode assembly using such an electrocatalyst and to a fuel cell making use of such an electrocatalyst.

The present invention relates to novel manganese complexes and their use, inter alia, for homogeneous catalysis in (1) the preparation of imine by dehydrogenative coupling of an alcohol and amine; (2)C—C coupling in Michael addition reaction using nitriles as Michael donors; (3) dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols to give esters and hydrogen gas (4) hydrogenation of esters to form alcohols (including hydrogenation of cyclic esters (lactones) or cyclic di-esters (di-lactones), or polyesters); (5) hydrogenation of amides (including cyclic dipeptides, lactams, diamide, polypeptides and polyamides) to alcohols and amines (or diamine); (6) hydrogenation of organic carbonates (including polycarbonates) to alcohols or hydrogenation of carbamates (including polycarbamates) or urea derivatives to alcohols and amines; (7) dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to ketones; (8) amidation of esters (i.e., synthesis of amides from esters and amines); (9) acylation of alcohols using esters; (10) coupling of alcohols with water and a base to form carboxylic acids; and (11) preparation of amino acids or their salts by coupling of amino alcohols with water and a base. (12) preparation of amides (including formamides, cyclic dipeptides, diamide, lactams, polypeptides and polyamides) by dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols and amines; (13) preparation of imides from diols.

Disclosed herein is a method for selectively reducing, using electrical energy, CO.sub.2 to carbon monoxide, a catalyst for use in the method, and an electrochemical reduction system. The method for producing carbon monoxide by electrochemically reducing carbon dioxide of the present invention includes (a) reacting carbon dioxide with a metal complex represented by formula (1), and (b) applying a voltage to a reaction product of the carbon dioxide and the metal complex represented by formula (1):

##STR00001##

A method for C—H bond activation and/or C—N coupling reaction comprises adding a hydrocarbon material to a container; adding a metal catalyst to the container; adding a primary or a secondary amine to the container. The metal catalyst is represented by the following formula:

##STR00001##

where Q is a 5 or 6 membered aromatic ring; W, X, and Y are the same or different, and are independently N, S, P, or O; M is Ni, Pd, Fe, Co, Cr, Mn, Cu, Pt, Ir, or Ru; Z is halide (F, Cl, Br, or I); R1 and R2 are the same or different, and are independently alkyl, aryl, alkylaryl or cycloalkyl; and n is 1, 2, or 3.