Creating new chemical compounds, such as new drugs, is not as simple as assembling one of those models with colored balls and sticks you might have seen in a beginning chemistry class. It is often a complex process with many steps and many chemical participants, some of which are toxic and hazardous.
Hydrogen atom transfer, or HAT, is a chemical synthesis technique. Technical constraints have limited its use. The chemistry of energy storage has been used by chemists at the University of Utah and their colleagues to accomplish HAT with less chemicals and less cost.
Samer Gnaim is the first author of a study reporting the findings of the study.
The study was published in Nature.
This is a classic example of the need for multi-disciplinary centers that bring organic chemists, computational scientists, and electrochemistry together to address large problems in organic synthesis.
The promises and challenges of HAT.
The process of moving a hydrogen atom from one molecule to another is called HAT. It is useful for making use of the most common chemical bond in organic chemistry, carbon-carbon bonds, to create a wide array of new bonds. All of those are important steps in the creation of a molecule. Functionalization is the process of making new bonds from carbon-carbon double bonds.
The functionalization of bonds is an attractive strategy to construct molecule and achieve complexity in an efficient fashion.
HAT has its drawbacks, but as useful as it is. The process of moving a hydrogen atom requires additional chemicals like oxidants and reductants to create an active catalyst, a compound that helps the reaction proceed. It's nearly impossible to apply HAT to industrial chemical processes because the oxidants and reductants are needed in large quantities.
Insight from energy storage.
Energy storage researchers are trying to develop a process that can help improve HAT while chemists are trying to improve it. Hydrogen is created by converting positively charged protons into hydrogen molecule with the help of a hydride catalyst. The same kind of catalyst is needed for the HAT process.
The energy storage field has been able to build catalysts using protons and electrons as stand-ins for oxidants and reductants.
Gnaim and his colleagues compared how the electrochemical process compares to conventional HAT chemistry by evaluating its performance in a wide range of organic chemistry reactions. The results were positive. They found that using chemistry to create catalysts for hydride was more sustainable and efficient.
What can we do now?
Other benefits were offered by the process. It could be done in small or large batches without the need for expensive oxidants and reductants.
The discovery of new transformations that can improve the discovery processes of new drugs can be done by Chemists by expanding the chemical reactivity to new spaces.
More information: Phil Baran, Cobalt-electrocatalytic HAT for functionalization of unsaturated C–C bonds, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04595-3. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04595-3 Journal information: Nature Citation: Chemists' HAT trick for greener chemical synthesis (2022, May 25) retrieved 25 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-chemists-hat-greener-chemical-synthesis.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
