Biopolymers, fiber diffraction

The structure of biopolymers can be studied using fiber diffraction... 

Cellulose is a natural biopolymer, which is biodegradable, environmentally safe, widely abundant, inexpensive, and easy to handle [57]. Cellulose and its derivatives are widely used in chemical and bio-chemical applications and also as supports for the synthesis of organic molecules [58]. Interestingly, the cellulose fibers also act as a nanoreactor for the stabilization of metal nanoparticles [59]. However, its use as a support for catalytic applications is not well explored. Recently, Choplin and coworkers reported cellulose as the support for water soluble Pd(OAc>2/5 TPPTS system in the Trost-Tsuji allylic alkylation reaction [60]. To corroborate the above concept in the cross coupling of aryl halides and boronic acids, we reported A-arylation of imidazoles with aryl halides using a cellulose-supported Cu(0) catalyst (CELL-Cu(O) [61]. The prepared catalyst was well characterized using various instrumental techniques. For example, the X-ray diffraction pattern of CELL-Cu(O) catalyst clearly indicates the presence of Cu (111) and Cu (200) phases which are attributed to Cu(0) [46]. Further, the high resolution XPS narrow scan spectrum of the fresh CELL-Cu(O) catalyst shows a Cu 2p3/2 peak at 932.72 ev, which is attributed to Cu (0) [22]. 

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