Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Organic chemistry

A cure for catalyst poisoning

Nature volume 524, pages 164–165 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Compounds that are sensitive to the components of air are difficult to use in chemical reactions, requiring conditions that are tedious to set up. A simple, practical solution to this problem has finally been devised. See Letter p.208

Capsules or pills for drug delivery were invented by the French pharmacists François Mothes and Joseph Dublanc in the early 1800s1,2 as a reproducible method for the consistent dosing and delivery of medicines and vitamins, and to maintain the stability of pharmaceutically active ingredients. This remains the most common formulation mode for drugs — without it, pharmacists would have to carefully weigh out and dispense freshly prepared powders of drug substances to patients. Yet research chemists still have to do this for each compound used in their reactions. This is especially problematic when using reagents and catalysts that are sensitive to atmospheric water vapour, oxygen or carbon dioxide. On page 208 of this issue, Buchwald and colleagues3 describe an ingenious solution to this problem by 'formulating' sensitive compounds in capsules, thereby eliminating the inconvenience associated with their storage and handling.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Encapsulated reagents for dispensing air-sensitive compounds.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Mothes, F. A. B. French patent 9690 (1834).

  2. Wilbert, M. I. Am. J. Pharm. 85, 559–572 (1913).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Sather, A. C., Lee, H. G., Colombe, J. R., Zhang, A. & Buchwald, S. L. Nature 524, 208–211 (2015).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Watson, D. A. et al. Science 325, 1661–1664 (2009).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Lee, H. G., Milner, P. J. & Buchwald, S. L. Org. Lett. 15, 5602–5605 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lee, H. G., Milner, P. J. & Buchwald, S. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 136, 3792–3795 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ishihara, Y., Montero, A. & Baran, P. S. The Portable Chemist's Consultant: A Survival Guide for Discovery, Process, and Radiolabeling (Apple, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Fors, B. P. & Buchwald, S. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 15914–15917 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Colombe, J. R., Bernhardt, S., Stathakis, C., Buchwald, S. L. & Knochel, P. Org. Lett. 15, 5754–5757 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marcus E. Farmer and Phil S. Baran are in the Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.,

    Marcus E. Farmer & Phil S. Baran

Authors
  1. Marcus E. Farmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Phil S. Baran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phil S. Baran.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Organic synthesis: The robo-chemist

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Farmer, M., Baran, P. A cure for catalyst poisoning. Nature 524, 164–165 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/524164a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/524164a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing