All cuprate samples were prepared by a method described by John et al. 1 Having the cuprate in hand it was cooled down to 170K and a solution of 4,4-dimethylcyclohexenone or MeI in DEE-d 10 was added depending on the synthesis. The amount of MeI as well as the amount of 4,4-dimethylcyclohexenone was adjusted to the synthesis of the cuprate solution. The ratio of DEE and DEE-d 10 varied due to different amounts of remaining DEE during the cuprate synthesis.

It's detected! The existence of the prototypical Zintl ions Tt44− (Tt=Group 14 element), which are isoelectronic to the P4 molecule, used to be confined to the solid state. Recently, circumstantial evidence for a solution chemistry in liquid ammonia emerged. Direct spectroscopic observation of the dissolved anions has now been achieved. In the case of Si44−, this is the first solution detection of any homoatomic silicide.

Abstract

The preparation of activated carbon materials is discussed along selected examples of precursor materials, of available production and modification methods and possible characterization techniques. We evaluate the preparation methods for activated carbon materials with respect to its use as catalyst support and identify important parameters for metal loading. The considered carbon sources include coal, wood, agricultural wastes or biomass as well as ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents or precursor solutions. The preparation of the activated carbon usually involves pre-treatment steps followed by physical or chemical activation and application dependent modification. In addition, highly porous materials can also be produced by salt templating or ultrasonic spray pyrolysis as well as by microwave irradiation. The resulting activated carbon materials are characterized by a variety of techniques such as SEM, FTIR, nitrogen adsorption, Boehm titrations, adsorption of phenol, methylene blue and iodine, TPD, CHNS/O elemental analysis, EDX, XPS, XRD and TGA.

Natural deep eutectic solvents (DESs) dissolve simple metal oxides and are used as a reaction medium to synthesize spinel-type ferrite nanoparticles MFe2 O4 (M=Mg, Zn, Co, Ni). The best results for phase-pure spinel ferrites are obtained with the DES consisting of choline chloride (ChCl) and maleic acid. By employing DESs, the reactions proceed at much lower temperatures than usual for the respective solid-phase reactions of the metal oxides and at the same temperatures as synthesis with comparable calcination processes using metal salts. The method therefore reduces the overall required energy for the nanoparticle synthesis. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the thermolysis process of the eutectic melts in air occurs in one major step. The phase-pure spinel-type ferrite particles are thoroughly characterized by X-ray diffraction, diffuse-reflectance UV/Vis spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The properties of the obtained nanoparticles are shown to be comparable to those obtained by other methods, illustrating the potential of natural DESs for processing metal oxides.