authoritative, comprehensive and systematic

Current Opinion
Elsevier

The Current Opinion journals were developed out of the recognition that it is increasingly difficult for specialists to keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in their subject. Elsevier’s Current Opinion journals comprise of 26 leading titles in life sciences and adjacent fields.

Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry

Issues per year: 6 issues
Editorial Board

Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry

The Current Opinion journals were developed out of the recognition that it is increasingly difficult for specialists to keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in their subject. In Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, we help the reader by providing in a systematic manner:

  1. The views of experts on current advances in Green and Sustainable Chemistry in a clear and readable form.
  2. Evaluations of the most interesting papers, annotated by experts, from the great wealth of original publications.

Division of the subject into sections
The subject Green and Sustainable Chemistry includes all chemical aspects along the life cycle of chemicals as well chemical products and materials e.g. resources, synthesis, use and after life issues. It aims on better understanding where and how chemistry itself can be made more sustainable and whereby chemistry can contribute to sustainability in general. Therefore, the journal it is divided into themed sections, each of which is reviewed once a year. The amount of space devoted to each section is related to its importance:

  • Mineral and fossil resources and metals
  • Biomass, bio-fuels and bioenergies
  • CO2 capture, and chemistry
  • Green solvents
  • Green catalysis
  • New synthetic methods
  • Photocatalysis
  • Green processes and technologies
  • Renewable energy and storage
  • Sustainable recycling of molecules, materials and products
  • Benign by Design
  • New business models, ethics, legislation and economics

There is also a section that changes every year to reflect hot topics in the field.

Selection of topics to be reviewed
Section Editors, who are major authorities in the field, are appointed by the Editors of the journal. They divide their section into a number of topics, ensuring that the field is comprehensively covered and that all issues of current importance are emphasized. Section Editors commission reviews from authorities on each topic that they have selected.

Reviews
Authors write short review articles in which they present recent developments in their subject, emphasizing the aspects that, in their opinion, are most important. In addition, they provide short annotations to the papers that they consider to be most interesting from all those published in their topic over the previous year.

Editorial Overview
Section Editors write a short overview at the beginning of the section to introduce the reviews and to draw the reader's attention to any particularly interesting developments.

Best Cited over the last year.

Subscribe to RSS Sciverse Scopus

Recent advances in organic synthesis with CO2as C1 synthon

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Carbon dioxide as a green, nontoxic and low-cost C1 synthon holds great potential in organic synthesis. In this paper, the recent studies of conversion of CO 2 with organic compounds (including alkenes, alkynes, amines, allylamines, propenyl ketones, propargylic alcohols/amines, arenes, and heteroarenes as well as their derivatives) to value-added chemicals are briefly reviewed.

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 22-27
Gaoqing Yuan | Caorong Qi | Wanqing Wu | Huanfeng Jiang

Transition metal promoted carboxylation of unsaturated substrates with carbon dioxide

© 2016 The use of CO 2 as a C1 building block for the synthesis of useful chemicals is of great significance, and has attracted increasing attention in recent years. The transition metal catalyzed or mediated addition of CO 2 to unsaturated chemical bonds has proved to be a powerful and versatile protocol for the incorporation of CO 2 into various unsaturated organic substrates such as alkynes, alkenes, allenes, aldehydes, and 1,3-dienes. The hydrogenative, alkylative and arylative…

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 17-21
Liang Zhang | Zhaomin Hou

Design and evolution of enzymes for non-natural chemistry

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Enzymes are used in biocatalytic processes for the efficient and sustainable production of pharmaceuticals, fragrances, fine chemicals, and other products. Most bioprocesses exploit chemistry found in nature, but we are now entering a realm of biocatalysis that goes well beyond. Enzymes have been engineered to catalyze reactions previously only accessible with synthetic catalysts. Because they can be tuned by directed evolution, many of these new biocatalysts have been…

Volume 7, Issue , 01 October 2017, Pp 23-30
Stephan C. Hammer | Anders M. Knight | Frances H. Arnold

Recent progress in stereoselective synthesis of cyclic organic carbonates and beyond

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The recent developments in the stereoselective formation of cyclic organic carbonates are discussed, together with their use as intermediates in stereoselective synthesis of other valuable scaffolds.

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 55-60
José Enrique Gómez | Arjan W. Kleij

Metal-free reduction of CO2

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 28-32
Frédéric Georges Fontaine | Douglas W. Stephan

Nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO2

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 provides a sustainable solution to address the intermittent renewable electricity storage while recycling CO 2 to produce fuels and chemicals. Highly efficient catalytic materials and reaction systems are required to drive this process economically. This Review highlights the new trends in advancing the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 by developing and designing nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts. The activity, selectivity and…

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 39-44
Dunfeng Gao | Fan Cai | Guoxiong Wang | Xinhe Bao

Ionic liquids for the fractionation of microalgae biomass

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Microalgae have emerged as one of the most promising sources of renewable biomass. However, considerable challenges must be addressed in order to improve the commercial outlook for the production of commodity chemicals. The largest challenge remains the energy intensive and consequently costly process of microalgae harvesting and drying. Ionic liquids have found a niche application in this area by allowing the extraction of lipids from wet biomass at low temperatures in…

Volume 2, Issue , 01 October 2016, Pp 22-27
Valerie C.A. Orr | Lars Rehmann

Circularity in green chemical products, processes and services: Innovative routes based on integrated eco-design and solution systems

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Understanding the current drivers, potentialities and challenges related to the role of chemical sciences in a circular economy is of fundamental importance when bioresources are taken into account. Particularly, after launching the European Commission action plan in 2015, the creation, development and use of green chemicals derived from renewable materials can be seen as more than simple opportunities in research and innovation. In this paper, the latest trends related to…

Volume 2, Issue , 01 October 2016, Pp 40-44
Vânia G. Zuin

Why flow means green – Evaluating the merits of continuous processing in the context of sustainability

© 2017 Enhanced heat and mass transfer, precise residence time control, shorter process times, increased safety, reproducibility, better product quality and easy scalability are just a few of the advantages of flow chemistry and reason for the increasing implementation of continuous processes not only in academia but also into the fine chemical manufacturing sector. Notably, to make a process greener and more sustainable becomes eminently important when going from lab-scale to production scale.…

Volume 7, Issue , 01 October 2017, Pp 6-12
Doris Dallinger | C. Oliver Kappe

Ionic liquids: Promising green solvents for lignocellulosic biomass utilization

© 2017 Ionic liquids are effective solvents/media for the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass. The unique properties of ionic liquids enable them to effectively dissolve and/or convert the biomass into various types of products. This review aims to cover the latest progress achieved in applications of ionic liquids on biomass conversion and analysis. Specifically, several recently developed approaches on how to overcome current challenges on the use of ionic liquids in the biomass conversion…

Volume 5, Issue , 01 June 2017, Pp 5-11
Chang Geun Yoo | Yunqiao Pu | Arthur J. Ragauskas

Non-thermal plasma technology for the conversion of CO2

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The conversion of carbon dioxide is vital if we are to avoid the catastrophic consequences that will result from further global temperature rise as a result of burning fossil fuels. Current techniques, such as catalytic conversion and biochemical processes, are each associated with their own drawbacks such as catalyst deactivation and high energy input. Plasma processes are gaining increasing interest as they have the potential to reduce a greater amount of atmospheric…

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 45-49
Bryony Ashford | Xin Tu

Amino acid based ionic liquids: A green and sustainable perspective

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Chiral and highly functionalized natural amino acids are readily available by renewable methods in high quantities. They can be easily converted into both anions and cations for the synthesis of ionic liquids. This mini review describes the synthesis of amino acid derived ionic liquids (AAILs) with a focus on the most recent developments. Some specialised applications for AAILs, namely in the fields of chiral solvents, acid catalysis and CO 2 absorption will be highlighted.

Volume 2, Issue , 01 October 2016, Pp 28-33
Sarah Kirchhecker | Davide Esposito

Kesterite compound semiconductors for thin film solar cells

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Thin film solar cells based on Cu 2 ZnSn(S,Se) 4 , “CZTS”, are attractive by combining high light absorption and high abundance of constituent elements. The efficiency of CZTS solar cells developed rapidly during the last decades, but significant improvements are still needed to reach commercially viable levels. This review covers the most recent trends in CZTS research; (i) alloying with new elements, (ii) exchange of CdS buffer layer with alternative materials, (iii) back…

Volume 4, Issue , 01 April 2017, Pp 84-90
Charlotte Platzer-Björkman

Dimethyl carbonate as a green chemical

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) is an established solvent and a green reagent which continues to attract attention. It is a nonpolar aprotic solvent with good miscibility with water, biodegrades readily in the atmosphere, and is non-toxic. DMC is classified in the greenest “recommended” bracket according to the solvent selection guide, and can be a potential replacement for methyl ethyl ketone, ethyl acetate, methyl isobutyl ketone, and most other ketones. Currently, the most…

Volume 5, Issue , 01 June 2017, Pp 61-66
Sang Hyun Pyo | Ji Hoon Park | Tae Sun Chang | Rajni Hatti-Kaul

Graft modification of chitosan, cellulose and alginate using reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP)

© 2016 This perspective covers the most recent literature on the graft-modification of the natural polymers celluloses, chitosan and alginate through reversible deactivation radical polymerization (NMP, ATRP and RAFT). The different routes to obtain well-defined polysaccharide-based hybrids including “grafting from” and “grafting to” approaches, and their applications as composite, stimuli-responsive, and biomaterials are discussed.

Volume 2, Issue , 01 October 2016, Pp 15-21
Joe Glasing | Pascale Champagne | Michael F. Cunningham

Metal-organic frameworks for energy-related applications

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Current micro review describes the recent progress in the energy-related MOF applications. The most outstanding research papers and reviews, which report the application of Metal-Organic Frameworks for gas storage, adsorption heat transformation, solar cells, fuel cells, hydrogen evolution reaction and supercapacitors are highlighted.

Volume 4, Issue , 01 April 2017, Pp 44-49
Volodymyr Bon

Pretreatment processes for lignocellulosic biomass conversion to biofuels and bioproducts

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Lignocellulosic materials, such as forestry, agricultural and agroindustrial residues, are among the most important sources of biomass for the production of fuels, chemicals and materials. However there are physical and chemical barriers in the lignin–carbohydrate supramolecular structure that render most plant cell wall components almost completely unavailable for conversion into commercial products. Thus successful conversion strategies must lead to the disruption of this…

Volume 2, Issue , 01 October 2016, Pp 48-53
Peter R. Seidl | Adriana K. Goulart

Production of organic acids from biomass resources

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Catalytic synthesis of valuable organic acids such as lactic acid, levulinic acid, formic acid, acetic acid, 2, 5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), and sugar acids (e.g. gluconic acid and glucosaminic acid) from renewable carbon resources is of high interest for a sustainable chemical industry in the future. A number of efficient catalytic systems have been recently developed to convert biomass into organic acids. Herein we highlight new strategies and catalysts that are…

Volume 2, Issue , 01 October 2016, Pp 54-58
Weiping Deng | Ye Wang | Ning Yan

Ionic liquids in gas separation processing

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Ionic liquids (ILs) are recognized as novel solvents for both acid and base gases separations in industrial processes to solve the possible problems caused by the traditional organic solvent methods, such as high energy consumption and second pollutions. In this paper, the absorption performance and absorption mechanism of several typical gases, including CO 2 , SO 2 , H 2 S and NH 3 , in conventional and functionalized ILs are briefly summarized and discussed. Besides, the…

Volume 5, Issue , 01 June 2017, Pp 74-81
Dawei Shang | Xinyan Liu | Lu Bai | Shaojuan Zeng | Qiuxia Xu | Hongshuai Gao | Xiangping Zhang

Efficient visible-light photocatalysts by constructing dispersive energy band with anisotropic p and s-p hybridization states

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Highly efficient visible-light photocatalysts are strongly in demand because they make it possible to achieve higher efficiency in utilization of solar energy, which is renewable and abundant. A narrow band gap, effective separation of photoexcited charge carriers, and proper band-edge positions, which depend on the band structure of the photocatalyst, are crucial for solar-energy conversion efficiency. In this review, we have summarized reports on the strategy of…

Volume 6, Issue , 01 August 2017, Pp 93-100
Haifeng Feng | Yi Du | Cong Wang | Weichang Hao

Current advances in heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from carbon dioxide

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The novel heterogeneous catalysts are highly demanded to perform the cycloaddition reaction of carbon dioxide with epoxide to synthesize the cyclic carbonates. The heterogeneous catalysts are more preferred than homogeneous catalysts due to the easy post reaction separation, easy to recycle, high stability and cost effective nature. In this review, we have summarized the current research progress in heterogeneous catalysis for the cycloaddition of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to…

Volume 3, Issue , 01 February 2017, Pp 1-10
Vitthal B. Saptal | Bhalachandra M. Bhanage

Recent advances in modeling green solvents

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Molecular modeling of environmentally benign solvents is essential for a microscopic understanding of interactions, processes and phenomena which contribute to their properties in bulk and at interfaces. Challenges in their modeling arise from their constitution – mixing of organic and inorganic components, their nano and possibly mesostructural order, and the quantum nature of interactions. This short review provides an overview of recent work on four categories of such…

Volume 5, Issue , 01 June 2017, Pp 37-43
Sudip Das | Anirban Mondal | Sundaram Balasubramanian

Recent advancements in palladium-catalyzed reactions involving molecular oxygen

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Oxidation reactions have significant value in organic chemistry, having been in focus continuously due to the high efficiency in building up molecular complexity. In the past few decades, transition metal-catalyzed oxidation reactions have been significantly explored and have played important roles in organic synthesis. Compared to the widely-used oxidants, such as inorganic salts, peroxides, hypervalent iodine reagents and quinones, molecular oxygen (O 2 ), which is…

Volume 7, Issue , 01 October 2017, Pp 46-55
Lu Ouyang | Wanqing Wu

Carbon nano-composites for lithium–sulfur batteries

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. The lithium–sulfur battery is among the most promising next-generation energy storage technologies. Particularly carbon nano-composites display an important “piece of the puzzle” to enhance their performance. This short review addresses five major challenges the research field is currently confronted with. It discusses new developments of advanced carbon nanostructures and highlights strategies to improve the performances by cathode functionalization. It outlines current…

Volume 4, Issue , 01 April 2017, Pp 64-71
Lars Borchardt | Holger Althues | Stefan Kaskel

Synthesis of chemicals using CO2as a building block under mild conditions

Volume 1, Issue , 01 August 2016, Pp 13-17
Zhenzhen Yang | Xiang Gao | Zhimin Liu

Elsevier Ltd.

About Us   |    Contact   |    Privacy Policy   |    Terms of Use   |    Cookies   |    Website Design

If your site is owned and operated by Elsevier companies in the EU, include the owner's registered office, place of registration, registration number and VAT number, for example: Elsevier B.V. Registered Office: Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Registered in The Netherlands, Registration No. 33156677, BTW No. NL 005033019B01.

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier, except certain content provided by third parties.

Cookies are set by this site. To decline them or learn more, visit our Cookies page.