SummaryThe quest for renewable and cleaner energy sources to meet the rapid population and economic growth is more urgent than ever before. Being the most abundant carbon source in the atmosphere of Earth, CO2 can be used as an inexpensive C1 building block in the synthesis of aromatic fuels for internal combustion engines. We designed a process capable of synthesizing benzene, toluene, xylenes and mesitylene from CO2 and H2 at modest temperatures (T = 380 to 540 °C) employing Fe/Fe3O4 nanoparticles as catalyst. The synthesis of the catalyst and the mechanism of CO2-hydrogenation will be discussed, as well as further applications of Fe/Fe3O4 nanoparticles in catalysis.

We have studied a new type of heterogeneous composite electrode featuring a ruthenium(II)-quaterpyridinium complex (Ru3PHOS) bearing six phosphonate groups for strong chemisorption on TiO 2 . Ru3PHOS@TiO 2 has then been deposited on microscopy glass slides using Ag-doped epoxy glue. Nanomolar amounts of palladium have been electrodeposited onto the Ru3PHOS@TiO 2 . To our surprise, we have observed the deposition of carbon needles onto the composite material when (photo)electrochemically reducing bicarbonate from aqueous buffers.

Rate constants (in M -~s -~) for the primary initiation stage of borane autoxidations have been found to be 1.8 x lo-, for tri-s-butylborane, 0.9 x for tri-isobutylborane, and 2 1.9 x lod3 for tricyclohexylborane at 25" in benzene; the reaction is first order in borane and oxygen.THE discovery that the autoxidation of organo-boranes was a free radical process1 has been followed by measurements which allowed estimates to be made of the initiation rates.2-6