The silica surface is shown to enable acid-base bifunctional catalysis when using tethered primary amines as base sites, for a variety of reactions.  These results point to the surface as a macroscopic entity that enforces general acid-base cooperativity via multiple acid-base separation distances, without the need for pinpoint preorganization between acid and base groups as in many homogeneous systems.  These principles are applied for the depolymerization of biomass-derived polymers.

Versatile bifunctional catalysis using surface of silica

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.