V. Barbera, D. Moscatelli, L. Rubino, M. Galimberti
Politecnico di Milano,
Italy
Keywords: graphene, functionalization, catalysis
Summary:
Confined reactors are emerging technological platforms to carry out organic reactions in more environmentally friendly and cost-effective conditions.[1] In this work, a hybrid supramolecular reactor composed of an amphiphilic block copolymer and a functionalized graphene has been developed and tested in several type of condensation reactions directly in water.[2,3] Although these reactions are thermodynamically unfavored in aqueous media, they occur instantaneously at room temperature with high yield in the developed reactor (Y = 90% after 5 minutes). Moreover, a strategy to recycle the catalyst has been developed without losing efficacy after each cycle (Y > 80%), making this technology more appealing for industrial applications.