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Organic chemistry

How to beat an alcohol problem

Nature volume 456, pages 711–712 (2008)Cite this article

Some alcohols can't be made in a way that controls the crucial arrangement of chemical groups in the molecule. A reaction that uses common laboratory reagents offers a practical route to these compounds.

Since the discovery that many organic molecules have mirror-image forms1, chemists have sought to control which of these 'enantiomers' is synthesized in reactions. Several strategies have been developed, such as the use of catalysts2 or enzymes3 to direct reactions towards making a particular chiral form. Alternatively, desired enantiomers can be separated from mixtures using chromatography4 or other 'resolution' techniques5. Certain classes of compounds can now be easily prepared as pure enantiomers, but others — in particular those with many chemical groups attached to a single carbon atom — remain a challenge.

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Figure 1: Preparing single enantiomers of tertiary alcohols.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karl B. Hansen is in the Department of Small Molecule Process and Product Development, Amgen, One Kendall Square, Building 1000, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. karl@amgen.com,

    Karl B. Hansen

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  1. Karl B. Hansen
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Hansen, K. How to beat an alcohol problem. Nature 456, 711–712 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/456711a

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