The first Work Package (WP1) focuses on the synthesis of new chiral imidazolium based ILs. 6 chiral imidazolium halide salts were obtained by reaction of 2 imidazolium backbones with 3 different chiral branches (Figure 2). Next, the anion exchange reaction with imidazole and natural chiral amino acids (L-leucine and L-phenylalanine) led to the synthesis of the new chiral ILs (Figure 3), which were fully characterized. In parallel, we prepared a new family of benzimidazolium-based chiral ILs from natural secondary alcohols (Figure 4), which were used as chiral recognition agents. This research work was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys 2018, 20, 20821; gold open access under process).
The second Work Package (WP2) consists in the SD of MNPs on chiral imidazolium based ILs. Nearly all ILs showed very high viscosity and led to the formation of a metal mirror on the IL surface during the deposition of Au, Pd and Ru. The deposition of Au and Pd NPs onto ILs containing NTf2- as counteranion was achieved by increasing the temperature, but only Pd led to the formation of small and well dispersed NPs (Figure 5). Interestingly, the deposition of small clusters was observed. We are currently investigating the mechanism of this process, since it can open up a new and promising field for the generation of extremely active catalytic systems. Once finished, this study will be submitted to a very high impact journal.
Work Package 3 (WP3) regarded the catalytic applications of the new systems MNPs-IL. Only the system consisting of PdNPs deposited onto IL 1 (Scheme 1) provided some enantioselectivity in the alcohol products obtained from hydrogenation of prochiral ketones. The best result was obtained in the hydrogenation of acetophenone, for which 20% of enantiomeric excess (ee) was observed. These results will be submitted to Chemical Communication as soon as an improvement in the %ee will be achieved.
Finally, Work package 4 and Work Package 5 are related to management, dissemination and communication (WP4), and training (WP5), respectively. I regularly promoted SDchirnanocat at group meetings, meetings at Departmental and Research Center level, and collaboration meetings. Finally, I delivered several oral presentations to communicate my research projects at different international conferences: (1) 43rd International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (Sendai, Japan, 2018); (2) 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition. (New Orleans, U.S.A. 2018); (3) III International Symposium on Nanoparticles/Nanomaterials and Applications (Caparica, Portugal, 2018).
On the other hand, I have written as corresponding author all the articles associated to the research work performed during the development of SDchirnanocat: (1) Cat. Sci. Tech. 2018, 8, 221 (green open access); (2) Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2018, 20, 20821 (gold open access under process); (3) Applied Catalysis: B Environmental (submitted, manuscript number APCATB-D-18-03867). I have supervised 3 Master and 3 PhD students, I have established different collaborations, and I have developed several proposals in order to apply for independent research positions. Finally, I attended to five short-courses offered by the University of Nottingham research training programme.
