News

Prabhat Ranjan recently published his work in Chemistry A European Journal. Sustainable chemistry always seeks new synthetic tools. This study brings into light new catalytic properties of triphenylphosphine with the following features: fast, inexpensive, and broad applicability towards dearomative spirocyclizations. Triphenylphosphine has been applied for the synthesis of complex spiro(hetero)cycles in batch and employing continuous flow, a field largely dominated by transition metals. In the cover image, triphenylphosphine has been shown to act as a ...

The Second International Process Intensification Conference (IPIC2) will take place in Leuven in May 2019. There is 1 month left to submit your abstract for this conference. This conference deals with the following topics: Batch to Continuous Energy Activation for processes and materials Multifunctional Reactors and Hybrid Separators Modular Processes Microreactors 3D Printing and Process Intensification Novel Process and Equipment ...

Do you like chocolate? Who doesn’t! But do you know why chocolate from some places or brands is much more snappier and melts much better in the mouth than others? Yes sure ingredients and recipe are a reason but there is something beyond ingredients that makes the same cocoa butter taste much nicer! Cocoa butter is basically a collection of ...

Last week, COSMIC had successfully fulfilled its Midterm Review meeting as well as its 4th Network-wide at the University of Cordoba and the University of Zaragoza, Spain. The purpose of the Midterm Review meeting is to have the project assessed by the REA (Research Executive Agency at EC) representative, having it been running for 24 months now. The 15 Early Stage Researchers ...

Prof. Giancarlo Cravotto from the University of Turin has been awarded by the President of the Italian Chemical Society Prof. Angela Agostiano and the President of the Organic Chemistry Division Prof. Gianluca Farinola. Research Award 2018 “Organic Chemistry for Energy, the Environment and Nanosciences”. Congratulations to Prof. Cravotto!

‘Smart’ materials are also called ‘intelligent’ and responsive materials. This is due to the property to change with their environment. In fact, smart materials react via a reversible mechanism to an external stimuli: stress, electrical current, temperature or even chemical compounds1. Those materials can be divided into several sub-groups: shape memory alloy, piezoelectric materials, magneto-rheological and electro-rheological materials. Due to ...

The use of truly catalytic and efficient reactions is one of the most straight way to pursue sustainable chemistry in organic synthesis. In chemistry, catalyst refers to any substance that increases the rate of the reaction without itself being consumed. This increase of the reaction´s rate happens because the catalyst lowers the activation energy required for the reaction to begin. ...

PhD studies at a university offer a unique way to improve personal communication skills and engrain the fundamental knowledge of the subject so deep within the mind that it might remain there even at an age when forgetting one’s own birthday no longer comes as a surprise. Of course I’m talking about teaching. The dreadfully exhausting and time-consuming, yet strangely ...

After the shot-gun presentation at the 16th meeting of the European Society of Sonochemistry (ESS16), Ana Luisa Maria won the “Best Poster” award for her work on Ultra sound assisted oxidative cleavage of fatty nitriles. Congratulations Ana!

Steff Van Loy is a PhD student at the Department of Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven. His work targets the implementation of mechanochemical methods for recycling of critical metals from industrial waste streams.