Incorporation of chemical functionalities in the framework of mesoporous silica.

Mesoporous silica, which shows well-defined pore systems, tunable pore diameters (2-30 nm), narrow pore size distributions and high surface areas (>600 m(2) g(-1)), is frequently modified using different methodologies (including in situ and post-synthetic strategies) to introduce various chemical functionalities useful in applications like catalysis, separation, drug delivery, and sensing. This contribution aims to provide a critical overview of the various strategies to incorporate chemical functionalities in mesoporous silica highlighting the advantages of the in situ methods based on the bottom-up construction of mesoporous silica containing various chemical functionalities in its structure.

Microwave-assisted versatile hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds using supported metal nanoparticles.

The efficient microwave-assisted transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds was performed using supported Pt and Pd nanoparticles on Al-SBA-15 materials. Excellent conversions, with exceedingly higher TOF values (4,000-20,000 h(-1)) compared to any previous literature report, were achieved in very short times of reaction (5-30 min), together with complete selectivities to the hydrogenated product.