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Practically simple reactions convert hydrocarbons to precious chemicals

Operationally simple chemistry enables aliphatic carbon–carbon bonds — the ‘girders’ in the framework of many organic molecules — to be prepared from widely available hydrocarbons known as alkenes.
  1. James P. Morken

    1. James P. Morken is in the Department of Chemistry, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA.

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Many valued reagents and catalysts used in the preparation of organic compounds are highly reactive and are therefore incompatible with exposure to the open atmosphere — in some cases, dangerously so. The instrumentation required to carry out reactions with these compounds, such as high-vacuum apparatus and gloveboxes (isolation chambers), is costly and demands special training. Chemical processes that do not have such requirements are therefore more likely to make a big impact on how chemists synthesize molecules, be it for the development of new materials, pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals. The reactions reported by Fu and co-workers1 in Nature are a case in point. Not only are they simple to carry out, but they also deliver a variety of useful products that are otherwise much more difficult to make.

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Nature 563, 336-337 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07333-w

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