Chem4Energy: a consortium of the Royal Society Africa Capacity-Building Initiative.

The Africa Capacity-Building Initiative is a Royal Society programme funded by the former UK Department for International Development to develop collaborative research between scientists in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. Initially, four institutions were involved in the Chem4Energy consortium: Cardiff University in the UK and three African partners, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, the University of Namibia and the University of Botswana, soon also including the Botswana International University of Science and Technology. The Chem4Energy research programme focused on 'New materials for a sustainable energy future: linking computation with experiment', aiming to deploy the synergy between state-of-the-art computational and experimental techniques to design and optimize new catalysts and semiconductor materials for renewable energy applications, based on materials that are abundant and readily available in African countries.

The Transfer Hydrogenation of Cinnamaldehyde Using Homogeneous Cobalt(II) and Nickel(II) (E)-1-(Pyridin-2-yl)-N-(3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl)methanimine and the Complexes Anchored on FeO Support as Pre-Catalysts: An Experimental and In Silico Approach.

The imino pyridine Schiff base cobalt(II) and nickel(II) complexes ( and ) and their functionalised γ-FeO counterparts ( and ) were synthesised and characterised using IR, elemental analysis, and ESI-MS for and , and single crystal X-ray diffraction for , while the functionalised materials and were characterized using IR, XRD, SEM, TEM, EDS, ICP-OES, XPS and TGA. Complexes , and the functionalised materials and were tested as catalysts for the selective transfer hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde and all four pre-catalysts showed excellent catalytic activity. Complexes and acted as homogeneous catalysts with high selectivity towards the formation of hydrocinnamaldehyde (88.

Understanding the Interactions between Triolein and Cosolvent Binary Mixtures Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Biodiesel is one of the emerging renewable sources of energy to replace fossil-fuel-based resources. It is produced by a transesterification reaction in which a triglyceride reacts with methanol in the presence of a catalyst. The reaction is slow because of the low solubility of methanol in triglycerides, which results in low concentrations of methanol available to react with triglyceride.