Novel ionic liquid derived ordered mesoporous carbons functionalized with sulfonic acid groups IOMC-ArSO3H and GIOMC-ArSO3H were prepared, characterized, and examined in the dehydration reaction of fructose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) both in aqueous and nonaqueous systems. To study and correlate the surface properties of these carbocatalysts and some other SBA-15 typed solid acids with 5-HMF yield, hydrophilicity index (H-index) were employed in the fructose dehydration. Our study systematically declared that almost a criterion may be expected for application of solid acids in which by increasing H-index value up to 0.8 the HMF yield enhances accordingly. More increase in H-index up to 1.3 did not change the HMF yield profoundly. Although, it has been shown that the catalyst with larger H-index (∼1.3) resulted in higher activity both in aqueous and 2-propanol systems, during the recycling process deactivation occurs because of more water uptake and the catalysts with optimum amount of H-index (∼0.8) is more robust in the dehydration of fructose.

Oxidative Heck reactions provide a facile and efficient route to carbon-carbon bond formations. This review is divided into two main sections, the first consisting of oxidative Heck reactions of organometallic compounds such as organoboranes, organosilanols and arylstannanes, and the second covering oxidative Heck reactions via C-H activation, a topic which has become an attractive theme in organic synthesis.

A novel nano-fibrillated mesoporous carbon (IFMC) was successfully prepared via carbonization of the ionic liquid 1-methyl-3-phenethyl-1H-imidazolium hydrogen sulfate (1) in the presence of SBA-15. The material was shown to be an efficient and unique support for the palladium nanoparticle (PdNP) catalyst Pd@IFMC (2) in aerobic oxidation of heterocyclic, benzylic, and heteroatom containing alcohols on pure water at temperatures as low as 40 °C for the first time and giving almost consistent activities and selectivities within more than six reaction runs. The catalyst has also been employed as an effective catalyst for the selective oxidation of aliphatic and allylic alcohols at 70-80 °C. The materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), N(2) adsorption-desorption analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron tomography (ET). Our compelling XPS and ET studies showed that higher activity of 2 compared to Pd@CMK-3 and Pd/C in the aerobic oxidation of alcohols on water might be due to the presence of nitrogen functionalities inside the carbon structure and also the fibrous nature of our materials. The presence of a nitrogen heteroatom in the carboneous framework might also be responsible for the relatively uniform and nearly atomic-scale distribution of PdNPs throughout the mesoporous structure and the inhibition of Pd agglomeration during the reaction, resulting in high durability, high stability, and recycling characteristics of 2. This effect was clearly confirmed by comparing the TEM images of the recovered 2 and Pd@CMK-3.

Palladium nanoparticles supported on nanofibrillated mesoporous carbon (Pd@IFMC) were found to be highly active in heterogeneous catalysis for the Ullmann homocoupling of a broad range of aryl chlorides, bromides and iodides in aqueous medium without the need to any chemical co-reducing agents. The catalysts could be recovered and reused several times without significant loss of activity.The aryl-aryl coupling reaction has become arguably one of the most important synthetic transformations for constructing biaryl units, which constitute a wide range of pharmaceuticals, natural products, and conducting polymers. [1] Of the aryl-aryl bond forming reactions, the Ullmann homocoupling of aryl halides has been widely used for the preparation of symmetrical biaryls over the past century. [2] However, this reaction has typically been performed at very high reaction temperatures (over 200 8C) with stoichiometric copper, which renders these methods impractical in the synthesis of biaryls bearing thermosensitive functional groups. Although considerable improvements have been made in recent years with varied Pd, Cu, and Ni-based catalysts, [1a, 2b, 3] these are mostly homogeneous procedures and require an excess of co-reductant, thereby suffering from limited utility in practical processes because of challenges associated with their separation, recovery, and product contamination. As a result, the use of heterogeneous catalysis is often favored for many chemical reactions to minimize the problems associated with homogeneous systems and improve the economic and environmental features of the processes. Despite these premises, very few heterogeneous and recyclable catalyst systems have been explored for the Ullmann homocoupling of aryl halides [4][5][6][7][8] and most of them are applicable only to the coupling of aryl iodides and bromides. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of Ullmann homocoupling of extremely challenging heteroaryl substrates by using heterogeneous palladium catalysts under Fax: (+ 98) 241 4153125

A novel nano-fibrillated mesoporous carbon (IFMC) was found to be an effective modifier in combination with ionic liquid 1-octylpyridinum hexafluorophosphate (OPFP) as a binder to give impregnated graphite electrodes with outstanding electrochemical performances.