Ending Sykes-Picot : the Arab World and the West after 2011

Amidst ongoing instability in the post-2011 Arab political, economic and social environment, accelerated in many cases by the weakening of the authority of the state – and in some cases by the removal or terminal decline of regimes – fundamental issues about what it means to be Arab and modern in the post-colonial Arab order are in dispute. The driving forces of change – demographic pressures, education, connectivity, unemployment and other frustrations and indignities – continue to fracture most Middle East Arab societies in complex ways, while the core political, judicial and economic institutions created by modernising rulers since the 19th century (in the case of Egypt) and in the colonial and early post-colonial era mostly remain in place. In Egypt and some other non-oil exporting Arab countries an amorphous desire to widen space for political and cultural expression was met by hard-edged determination to secure the success of an ill-defined and largely unarticulated Islamist vision. While initially it enjoyed political ascendancy 1 the Islamist trend has subsequently encountered major challenges to its authority and political legitimac

Egypt after Mubarak : the challenges ahead

The events in Egypt in November 2011, and in preceding months, are stark reminders that the Middle East is changing in ways which a decade ago were rarely contemplated, either in the countries concerned or beyond them. A new solar system is emerging in the Arab world in which the gases are still swirling. In time, they will cool and solidify into more predictable and hopefully more productive forms—but how long that may take is far from certain. The core argument I presented at Durham University in November 2010 was that the coming decade would witness a leadership transition in Egypt whose impact — for better or worse — would be felt across the region. The demographic clock was ticking. The political, economic, and social outlook was uncertain. And political, economic, social and strategic issues were inter-related. The future of Egypt, and by extension, the Arab Middle East hinged on a conundrum – its capacity to change fast enough to meet emerging demographic and other pressures depended on empowerment, inclusiveness and growing equalization of opportunity

Correction to: Solvent free synthesis of PdZn/TiO2 catalysts for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol

The article Solvent Free Synthesis of PdZn/TiO2 Catalysts for the Hydrogenation of CO2 to Methanol by Hasliza Bahruji, Jonathan Ruiz Esquius, Michael Bowker, Graham Hutchings, Robert D. Armstrong, Wilm Jones was originally published Online First without open access. After publication in volume 61, issue 3–4, pages 144–153, the author decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an open access publication. Therefore, the copyright of the article has been changed to ©The Author(s) 2018 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made

Fabrication of complex model oxide catalysts: Mo oxide supported on Fe3O4(111)

Industrial catalysts for the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde consist of iron molybdate [Fe2(MoO4)3]. Using a variety of techniques we have previously shown that the surface of these catalysts is segregated in MoO3, and in order to understand the relationship between surface structure and reactivity for these systems we have begun a surface science study of this system using model, single crystal oxides. Model catalysts of molybdenum oxide nanoparticles and films on an Fe3O4 (111) single crystal were fabricated by the hot-filament metal oxide deposition technique (HFMOD), where molybdenum oxides were produced using a molybdenum filament heated in an oxygen atmosphere. Low energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) have been used to investigate molybdenum oxide nanoparticles and films deposited on Fe3O4 (111). The molybdenum oxide film forms in the highest oxidation state, 6+, and is remarkably stable to thermal treatment, remaining on the surface to at least 973 K. However, above ~ 573 K cation mixing begins to occur, forming an iron molybdate structure, but the process is strongly Mo coverage dependent

A facile route to model catalysts: the synthesis of Au@Pd core-shell nanoparticles on y-Fe2O3 (0001)

A straightforward method of synthesising Au@Pd core–shell particles on a well characterised γ-Fe2O3 (0001) substrate has been developed which will enable fundamental studies into the surface chemistry of these catalytically interesting systems. Au and Pd were sequentially deposited onto a γ-Fe2O3 (0001) substrate in ultra high vacuum by metal vapour deposition and probed by LEIS and STM. Deposition of Au followed by heating at 573 K formed nanoparticles of 5 to 10 nm in diameter whereas subsequent deposition of Pd produced smaller nanoparticles of 2 to 4 nm diameter. At this stage, LEIS shows both metals to be present but heating the combined system to 573 K resulted in the loss of the Au signal in the LEIS and disappearance of the smaller particles from the STM images indicating the formation of Au@Pd core–shell structures

Solvent free synthesis of PdZn/TiO2 catalysts for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol

Catalytic upgrading of CO2 to value-added chemicals is an important challenge within the chemical sciences. Of particular interest are catalysts which are both active and selective for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol. PdZn alloy nanoparticles supported on TiO2 via a solvent-free chemical vapour impregnation method are shown to be effective for this reaction. This synthesis technique is shown to minimise surface contaminants, which are detrimental to catalyst activity. The effect of reductive heat treatments on both structural properties of PdZn/TiO2 catalysts and rates of catalytic CO2 hydrogenation are investigated. PdZn nanoparticles formed upon reduction showed high stability towards particle sintering at high reduction temperature with average diameter of 3–6 nm to give 1710 mmol kg−1 h of methanol. Reductive treatment at high temperature results in the formation of ZnTiO3 as well as PdZn, and gives the highest methanol yield

Hydrogenation of CO2 to dimethyl ether over brønsted acidic PdZn catalysts

Eschewing the common trend toward use of catalysts composed of Cu, it is reported that PdZn alloys are active for CO2 hydrogenation to oxygenates. It is shown that enhanced CO2 conversion is achievable through the introduction of Brønsted acid sites, which promote dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether. We report that deposition of PdZn alloy nanoparticles onto the solid acid ZSM-5, via chemical vapor impregnation affords catalysts for the direct hydrogenation of CO2 to DME. This catalyst shows dual functionality; catalyzing both CO2 hydrogenation to methanol and its dehydration to dimethyl in a single catalyst bed, at temperatures of >270 °C. A physically mixed bed comprising 5% Pd 15% Zn/TiO2 and H-ZSM-5 shows a comparably high performance, affording a dimethyl ether synthesis rate of 546 mmol kgcat −1 h−1 at a reaction temperature of 270 °C