The little, juvenile and aggressive “fluorine atom” is growing up and also his situation is becoming your prime focus. Fluorine atom is definitively unique and confers distinctive molecular properties to many fluorine containing compounds studied for relevant developments. Surprisingly, “the little fluorine” carried out the desired job in countless applications. Its behaviour “wonderful or terrible” is distinctive for the reason that it is possible to replace any hydrogen in an organic molecule or macromolecule with fluorine atom, creating an infinite extension of completely synthetic organic chemistry, since very few compounds containing carbon-fluorine bonds are present in nature (1). Starting from the discovery of PTFF by Roy Plunkett, serendipity is quite frequent in fluorine chemistry, also due to the infinite number of possible compounds and related properties

A new regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009) concerning the placing on the market of plant protection products has been recently published. This regulation replaces Council Directive 91/414/EEC. Many of the provisions of the new regulation are broadly similar to those in the Directive. However important changes include the introduction of hazard based cut-off criteria, the establishment of candidates for substitution and comparative assessment; together with zonal authorisation and mutual recognition for plant protection products

In this work, polymeric derivative of ferulic acid was synthesized by employing ascorbic acid-H2O2 as redox initiator system at room temperature. The insertion of ferulic acid into the polymeric chain was confirmed by FT-IR analyses, and the total antioxidant capacity of the macromolecular system determined by the molybdate method, and correspond to a ferulic acid equivalent concentration of 0.59 mM. UV spectra are characterized by broad absorption bands in the UVA and UVB region, showing the efficiency of the polymeric system in preventing the UV-induced damages

In the first part of this review (last issue), recent applications of tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (tempo) in synthetic organic chemistry were presented. The second part of this review primarily focuses on the use of N-alkoxyamines and N-oxyl compounds in an industrial context. It also attempts to demonstrate the auspicious potential of this compound class by giving an insight into less known applications in selected scientific areas

The placing of biocides on the market of the European Union (EU) is regulated by two review programs defined by the Biocidal Products Directive (BPD) and the Plant Protection Products Directive (PPPD). Furthermore, product specific directives specify the biocidal products which are permitted for use in cosmetics and foodstuffs. Moreover, restrictions apply to the residuals of Plant Protection Products (PPP) in foodstuffs. The currently available biocide selection is thus strictly defined, but will also meet even more challenges by the emerging chemicals regulation such as REACH, Volatile Organic Compound (VOC ) restrictions and the Water Framework directive

The progresses in the magnetic media technology brought to the application of liquid lubricant films on diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings. Hard surfaces are typically lubricated with fluorinated or perfluorinated organic compounds, such as perfluoropolyethers (PFPE) (1). Many attempts have been done to obtain a stable layer of PFPE lubricant on the DLC surface by dip-coating or by vapour deposition so as to minimize any friction and wear (2, 3). Diamond-like carbons are formed by an amorphous mixture of sp3 and sp2 hybridized carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms incorporated in the structure (a-C:H DLC). We have established a specific methodology for the straight-forward introduction of perfluorinated groups with carbon-carbon bond formation on a variety of unsaturated materials (4-8)

Perfluorinated compounds play an important role in the materials industry, although perfluorinated building blocks have not been widely available for very long. The recent development of liquid-phase direct fluorination techniques has brought about the production of various new perfluorinated compounds. The methods for preparing perfluorinated compounds are reviewed, and recent developments in techniques for the synthesis of perfluorinated building blocks are presented

Fluorinated compounds are valuable synthetic materials but the synthesis of such compounds often relies on building block strategies. Herein we present a mild and selective method for the direct synthesis of trifluoromethyl ethers from alcohols using a hypervalent iodine(III ) electrophilic trifluoromethylating agent developed in our group

With increasingly severe sanctions in place for breaches of competition law and active enforcement by the European Commission and national competition authorities, companies need to be mindful of possible pitfalls presented by the RE ACH legislation. This article considers possible anti-competitive conduct in the context of RE ACH and provides some practical guidance for companies on avoiding such risks whilst still meeting their compliance obligations under RE ACH

CT O (crude tall oil) fractionation – a little known niche in the chemical space – represents an exquisite example of a bio refining activity contributing to both reduce dependency on fossil feed stocks as well as to avoid substantial volumes of greenhouse gases emissions as mirrored in avoided GHG (Greenhouse gases) emissions in the EU alone of 400 kt - equivalent to roughly a quarter million cars. This is resulting from the low carbon footprint of CT O derived materials compared to their substitutes - be these vegetable oil or crude oil based

Like many other western world people working in the chemical sector, I have witnessed the miraculous growth of China in recent decades. I often recall the time I worked in Hong Kong, a sort of window overlooking a yet unknown world, which even then, it was the ‘80s and ‘90s, showed signs of a development that would have soon surprised the whole world. A very rapid development that continues to surprise for the size of the phenomenon. It’s not just a matter of how big China’s chemical sector growth is, it’s also about growing quality and organisation. Rapid progress inevitably generates critical issues to be resolve, but it must be said that problems are always seen by the Chinese as a challenge that can, and must, be overcome - a typical feature of the Asian mentality that continuously sets new goals to be achieved, not only through emulation, but often aiming at perfection

The term “privileged ligands” was coined many years ago to describe systems that create effective asymmetric environments for mechanistically unrelated reactions (1). In terms of asymmetric hydrogenation electron rich P-chiral ligands (Figure 1) have been demonstrated to be privileged in this field. Rhodium catalysts based on these ligands have been shown to have high activity and selectivity for a broad range of asymmetric hydrogenation reactions. The first ligand in this class was DiPAMP introduced by Knowles in 1974 (2); Imamoto described the Bis-P* and mini-Phos systems in 1998 (3) and 1999 (4) respectively; and Hoge reported the TriChickenFootPhos (TCFP) ligand in 2004 (5). Chiral Quest, in collaboration with Xumu Zhang, has developed three ligands in this privileged class; TangPhos (6), Binapine (7) and DuanPhos

The use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) intermolecular nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) represent one of the most effective investigation tool for the assessment of nanostructural organization in ionic liquids. Homo- and heteronuclear NOE provide, in principle, information on all the possible interactions within the liquid: cation-cation, cation-anion, anion-anion and, in case, solute solvent contacts. Some paradigmatic cases taken from the recent literature are exposed with the goal of outlining general approaches and strategies

The influence of a pressure of 60 MPa on the conversion and the stereoselectivity of the Diels-Alder reaction of 2- and 3-furylmethanol with methyl-, benzyl-, and phenylmaleimide was studied in a capillary micro-reactor. In the case of 2-furylmethanol, a 1.7-fold higher conversion was obtained at 60 MPa with respect to 0.1 MPa experiments. Pressure positively affects the formation of the exo isomer, whereas in the case of 3-furylmethanol pressure does not affect the reaction