A platinum-carbon electrocatalyst material comprising a carbon support having a minimum BET surface area of 1000 m.sup.2/g, a nitrogen content of at least 2.5 weight percent, which is present in the form of pyridine, pyridone or pyrrole, a phosphorous content of at least 3 weight percent, which is present in the form of phosphate and phosphonate, and a plurality of platinum nanoparticles dispersed on the carbon support having a maximum average particle diameter of 1.5 nm.

The present invention relates to a method for producing an ?-aryl substituted carbonyl compound (e.g., an ?-aryl substituted cyclic ketone) from a carbonyl compound (e.g., a cyclic ketone) using an aryl halide or a heteroaryl halide and a photocatalyst (e.g., acridinium, helicenium, angulenium, or a combination thereof) in the presence of an amine compound. The method of the present invention is particularly useful in producing an ?-aryl substituted carbonyl compound (e.g., an ?-aryl substituted cyclic ketone) from an unactivated carbonyl compound (e.g., an unactivated cyclic ketone).

A non-human organism for upgrading intermediate oxidation products formed by catalytic degradation of alkanes or polystyrenes is provided. The non-human organism is genetically modified to convert the intermediate oxidation products to secondary metabolites, and in particular to include a positive feedback loop construction in the promotor system. A method includes steps of catalytically degrading alkanes or polystyrene in an oxidizing environment to form intermediate products with one or more catalysts and contacting the intermediate products with the non-human organism such that intermediate oxidation products are converted to secondary metabolites.

This invention relates to a process for preparing a calixarene compound by reacting a phenolic compound and an aldehyde in the presence of at least one nitrogen-containing base as a catalyst to form the calixarene compound. The invention also relates to processes for high-yield, high solid-content production of a calixarene compound, with high selectivity toward a high-purity calix[8]arene compound, without carrying out a recrystallization step.

A compound containing at least one hexahydrotriazine unit of formula (I) having at least one amidine or guanidine group and to the use thereof as a catalyst for the crosslinking of a functional compound, in particular a polymer including silane groups. The compound contains at least one hexahydrotriazine unit of formula (I) is producible in a simple process from readily available feedstocks, odorless at room temperature, non-volatile and largely non-toxic. The compound accelerates the crosslinking of functional polymers surprisingly well and by simple variation of the substituents is variable such that it has very good compatibility in different polymers as a result of which such compositions do not have a propensity for migration-based defects such as separation, exudation or substrate contamination.

An activated carbon-based media for efficient removal of chloramines as well as chlorine and ammonia from an aqueous stream is presented, and a method for making the same. The method involves preparing activated carbon that remove chloramines efficiently from chloramine-rich aqueous media. In particular, this application relates to the use of high performance catalytically active carbon for an efficient removal of chloramine from drinking water in the form of a solid carbon block or granular carbon media. The activated carbon is treated with a nitrogen-rich compound, such as, melamine.

A method of preparing glycolide, the method including dehydrative oligomerization and catalytic depolymerization. The dehydrative oligomerization includes stepwise heating a glycolic acid aqueous solution from room temperature to a temperature of between 200 and 210 C., and maintaining the temperature at each corresponding temperature stage, to yield an oligoglycolic acid. The catalytic depolymerization includes adding a binary complex catalytic system to the oligoglycolic acid to yield a reactant mixture, stepwise heating the reactant mixture from room temperature to a temperature of between 280 and 285 C., and maintaining the temperature at each corresponding temperature stage.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a compound of 5 or 5*, or a mixture thereof, that is useful as an antifungal agent. In particular, the invention seeks to provide new methodology for preparing compounds 7, 7* and 11, 11* and substituted derivatives thereof.

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.

According to one embodiment, a reduction catalyst includes a current collector including a metal layer; and organic molecules including a quaternary nitrogen cation, which are bonded to the metal layer. The organic molecules are represented by any of the following general formulae I to V. ##STR00001##