Teaching an old chemical new tricks

Date:
December 6, 2021
Source:
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Summary:
Chemists have put a new spin on an old catalyst called 'Barton's
base' to invent a faster, 'greener' chemical reaction. Their new
chemistry speeds up molecule synthesis used for discovering new
materials and drugs.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but can you do new tricks
with old chemical catalysts? Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor
John E. Moses and his team have paired a catalyst called "Barton's base" developed in the 1980s with a new family of chemical reactions. This
powerful combination results in a chemical transformation that happens
within minutes or even seconds. Their new chemistry can accelerate the generation of complex molecules needed for biomedical research, drug development, and materials science.


========================================================================== Click chemistry enables chemical building blocks to be joined together
quickly, reliably, and cleanly. A click reaction often requires a
catalyst to jumpstart it. Barton's base is so powerful that Moses only
needs a small trace of it to spark a reaction. Moses says, "Reducing
the amount of catalyst needed for a reaction is cost-effective and
beneficial to the environment." The new reaction, called accelerated
SuFEx click chemistry (ASCC), also allows multiple steps to be skipped
in some synthetic pathways, including the synthesis and purification of intermediate molecules. Moses says, "Removing steps has a huge influence
on the amount of waste generated from a reaction.

The ASCC method will greatly enhance the 'green credentials' of SuFEx
click chemistry, especially when applied on an industrial scale."
Moses feels a personal connection to Barton's base. He says, "Sir Derek
Barton, who first prepared Barton's base in the 1980s, happens to be
my academic grandfather." Barton trained Moses' Ph.D. advisor Sir Jack
E. Baldwin at the University of Oxford. Following in the footsteps of
his academic ancestors, Moses and his team continue to come up with more
and more new chemistry tricks.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Cold_Spring_Harbor_Laboratory. Original written by Luis Sandoval. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Christopher J. Smedley, Joshua A. Homer, Timothy L. Gialelis,
Andrew S.

Barrow, Rebecca A. Koelln, John Edward Moses. Accelerated
SuFEx Click Chemistry For Modular Synthesis. Angewandte Chemie
International Edition, 2021; DOI: 10.1002/anie.202112375 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211206112956.htm

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