Greener Synthesis of Pristane by Flow Dehydrative Hydrogenation of Allylic Alcohol Using a Packed-Bed Reactor Charged by Pd/C as a Single Catalyst

Our previous work established a continuous-flow synthesis of pristane, which is a saturated branched alkane obtained from a Basking Shark. The dehydration of an allylic alcohol that is the key to a tetraene was carried out using a packed-bed reactor charged by an acid–silica catalyst (HO-SAS) and flow hydrogenation using molecular hydrogen via a Pd/C catalyst followed. The present work relies on the additional propensity of Pd/C to serve as an acid catalyst, which allows us to perform a flow synthesis of pristane from the aforementioned key allylic alcohol in the presence of molecular hydrogen using Pd/C as a single catalyst, which is applied to both dehydration and hydrogenation. The present one-column-two-reaction-flow system could eliminate the use of an acid catalyst such as HO-SAS and lead to a significant simplification of the production process.

The Investigation of Microwave-Assisted Greener Synthesis of Ag/Ti/Zn Trimetallic Nanoparticles and Carbon Quantum Dots Nanocomposites in the Application of Solar Cell

In this communication, we report a greener microwave method for synthesizing Ag/Ti/Zn trimetallic nanoparticles and carbon quantum dots nanocomposites (Ag/Ti/Zn TNPs and CQDs NCs). The morphology, topography, and size of the Ag/Ti/Zn TNPs and CQDs nanocomposites were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The optical properties of the as-synthesized Ag/Ti/Zn TNPs and CQDs NCs were examined using UV–Vis spectroscopy and bandgap analysis. Finally, the Ag/Ti/Zn TNPs and CQDs NCs were fabricated by microwave-assisted greener synthesis, which was used as a photosensitizer, the copper plate as a counter electrode, and polysulfide as an electrolyte was assembled into the solar cell. The natural pigments extracted from the fruit of Solanum lycopersicium extract were used in Ag/Ti/Zn TNPs and CQDs NCs based solar cells. The as-fabricated solar cell's conversion efficiency was 5.47% with a Voc of 0.74 V, Jsc of 12.1 mA/cm2, and an FF of 0.60. Thus, this study highlights that the use of Ag/Ti/Zn TNPs and CQDs NCs has the great potential to be used as a photosensitizer.