Dear Colleagues,

The publication of “Acid and Base catalysis” by Broensted in 1928 recognized this fundamental reaction mechanism as dominating the field of organic and inorganic synthesis.

Modern acid–base catalysis aims to replace homogeneous catalysts as sulphuric, hydrochloric, or nitric acids, as well as sodium hydroxide and potassium t-butoxide with solid materials, such as silica-alumina, heteropolyacids/polyoxometallates (POMs), perovskites, sulphate oxides, acid or basic zeolites, hydroxyapatite, and MOF, as they present some advantages in terms of the easy separation of catalysts from the reaction medium, less corrosivity for reactors, less by-products formation, and implementation of continuous flow reactors. Many catalytic reactions have been optimized under heterogeneous acid–base catalysis with the dehydratation of alcohols to olefins, olefin hydrogenation, side chain aromatic alkylation as pre-eminent examples. Acid–base catalysis also dominates other fascinating research areas, such as enzymatic and supramolecular catalysis, transition metal catalysis, and organocatalysis. The active sites of enzymes mimicked by cage compounds and ligand assembly through hydrogen bonds in transition metals complexes are only examples of acid–base catalysis implementation at a supramolecular level.

This Special Issue aims to cover the recent progresses in acid–base catalysis spreading applications in heterogeneous, homogeneous, enzymatic, and supramolecular catalysis. Original research articles and reviews focusing on a specific topic are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Immacolata Concetta Tommasi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Heterogeneous acid–base catalysis
• Homogeneous acid–base catalysis
• Enzymatic acid–base catalysis
• Supramolecular acid–base catalysis
• Cage compounds
• MOF
• Perovskites
• Experimental and theoretical approaches addressing phenomena occurring in catalysis