Chinese Chemists report low impact carbon dioxide fixation chemistry.

[NNadir]

"Introduction:

Development of green processes based on chemical
fixation of carbon dioxide (CO2) has received a great deal
of interest in recent years because carbon dioxide could
be used as a safe and cheap C1 building block to produce
useful organic compounds.1 A large number of studies
have been devoted to the fixation of CO2 for synthesis of
alkylidene carbonates, which are usually obtained from
reactions between CO2 and propargylic alcohols catalyzed
over various metal complexes2 including Cu, Co, Ru, and
Pd or in the presence of large amounts of tertiary
phosphines,3 because the five-membered ring alkylidene
carbonates are important intermediates for many organic
syntheses.4 However, the use of tertiary amines, large
amounts of organic solvents, and high CO2 pressure (ca.
5.0 MPa) was unavoidable in order to achieve good
results. Additionally, this reaction usually proceeded in
volatile organic solvents, such as DMF or THF. Therefore,
it is necessary to develop a mild, clean, and efficient
method for the synthesis of alkylidene carbonates from
carbon dioxide.
Room temperature ionic liquids, especially those based
on the 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations, have shown
great promise as an attractive alternative to conventional
organic solvents, and much attention has been currently
focused on organic reactions promoted by ionic liquids..."

From the Journal of Organic Chemistry, (J. Org. Chem.; (Article); 2004; 69(2); 391-394.)

[aquart]

1. Which, in English, means........?

[NNadir]

2. It means that in countries where science is valued and where there are

many scientifically literate people, technologies are being developed to make things like polymers (plastics) and other important organic chemicals in an environmentally benign way.

Sorry to have been so obscure. The article is by the way written in English, albeit technical English. Ultimately, one suspects that most important articles will be written in Chinese, so I'm trying to enjoy access to the scientific literature while it is still available to me.

[Botany]

4. In other words

They might be able to take the CO 2 from the air around us (good less greenhouse
gases) and use the C in it to make different organic compounds.

A lot of those big petrochemical plants just "crack" carbon chains from oil, coal,
corn, and natural gas to make chemical feed stocks i.e. building blocks for other
products. Such as the keys on the board in front of you, plastic bottles, and may
favorite "RAYON." (Speaking of which you do not see much RAYON clothing these
days)

So very soon the chinese will be outsourcing their work to us because we have
spent more time watching TV, reading people mag, and listen to some hate filled
preacher warning us about the danger of evolution in the schools. That is because
a lot of the Carbon we now use comes from fossil fuels which are nothing more than
long dead organic life forms which got sequestered millions of years ago. But that
is off the topic and I am starting to ramble ....... RAYON does that for me.

[illflem]

3. It says the US has become 2nd class

in terms of development of technological breakthroughs

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Doesn't matter!

We still blow more people up than anyone else!

USA! Number 1!

Repeat mindlessly.

[struggle4progress]

6. ??! What you should actually get from this article is:

so-called "ionic liquids" (typically salts with very low melting points) are of potential interest to "green chemistry" researchers because certain reactions might provide almost-stoichiometric yields if "ionic liquids" are used as solvents.

How "green" these ideas really are requires further study: in particular, you won't find informative Material Safety Data Sheets for all the 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium salts of current interest, the toxicology not having been fully explored.

It should take a lot more than a few years of Bushista rule to destroy American science, although it is true that in many areas research budgets are being cut.