16-Mar-2017
-
The European Journal of
Inorganic Chemistry publishes a
new article from
Yael Albo and co-workers in Israel using a
solid catalyst fully analogous to the newly developed SiliaCat Au, in
the dehalogenation of toxic brominated organic acids formed during
disinfection of water via
chlorination.
Co-authored by Israeli scientists based at Ariel and Ben Gurion
Universities and two other research centres in Israel, the new work in
EurJIC reports the
successful
application of gold nanoparticles
entrapped
in an
organically modified silica
matrix in the reductive de-halogenation of monobromo and
tribromoacetic acids with sodium borohydride.
Tribromoacetic acid and monobromoacetic acid are brominated disinfection
by-products (
BDBP) produced
during water disinfection with chlorine, due to
bromide traces.
Though present in trace concentration in final drinking water, the presence
of
highly toxic BDBP has major implications
regarding health making the development of an effective treatment
of
BDBP for the provision of safe drinking water "urgently needed".
The catalyst is so
stable that
it could be reused three times without any
noticeable change in activity and structural change, while the method is intrinsically
green as the by-product of
borohydride oxidation is innocuous boric acid.
Says Mario Pagliaro,
"
Congratulations to colleagues in Israel: We
are glad that the
first new application of this material occurs almost on the same day of
a closely related article in which similar progress was anticipated" continues the Italy's scholar referring to the article
entitled '
Towards Broad Utilization of Gold Nanoparticles Entrapped in
Organosilica' published today in
ChemCatChem
by an international team including also researchers at Italy's Research Council and
Francois Béland and
Valerica Pandarus in
Canada.
"
It's always nice to see an
application of a functional material you helped to develop, moreover when it
works towards environmental remediation and sustainability",
adds
Alexandra Fidalgo, a scholar at Lisboa's Universidade Europeia and
Instituto Superior Tecnico who co-authored the
2015 article
reporting the first catalytic application of this versatile material,
for which new applications to other areas of catalysis, analytical
chemistry, bioimaging and photonics are anticipated.
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