A leap forward in the quest for general catalysts

Scharf, Manuel J.; List, Benjamin

doi:10.1038/d41586-022-03173-x

NEWS AND VIEWS
10 October 2022

A leap forward in the quest for general catalysts

Truly general chemical reactions work well regardless of the structural features and functional groups in the starting molecule. A new screening protocol speeds up the identification of such reactions in the field of asymmetric catalysis.

Manuel J. Scharf⁰ &
Benjamin List¹

Manuel J. Scharf
1. Manuel J. Scharf is at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
View author publications

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Benjamin List
1. Benjamin List is at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
View author publications

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Access through your institution

Buy or subscribe

Whether a newly developed chemical reaction finds its way into the chemist’s toolbox for synthesis depends on various factors, such as the convenience of the experimental set-up and the toxicity of the reagents and by-products. Most importantly, an ideal reaction should be general — it must generate the expected products reliably for a wide range of previously unused substrate molecules. However, the generality of a reaction typically becomes apparent only after it has been used reproducibly in a variety of syntheses. Writing in Nature, Wagen et al.¹ present a protocol for screening reactions that might accelerate the development of general catalytic methods for asymmetric synthesis, the field of chemistry that aims to make single mirror-image isomers of organic compounds.

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Nature 610, 632-633 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03173-x

References

Wagen, C. C., McMinn, S. E., Kwan, E. E. & Jacobsen, E. N. Nature 610, 680–686 (2022).
Article Google Scholar
Crossley, R. Tetrahedron 48, 8155–8178 (1992).
Article Google Scholar
Nugent, W. A., Rajanbabu, T. V. & Burk, M. J. Science 259, 479–483 (1993).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Gao, X. & Kagan, H. B. Chirality 10, 120–124 (1998).
Article Google Scholar
Kim, H. et al. Nature Commun. 10, 770 (2019).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Duursma, A., Minnaard, A. J. & Feringa, B. L. Tetrahedron 58, 5773–5778 (2002).
Article Google Scholar
Bu, X., Regalado, E. L., Hamilton, S. E. & Welch, C. J. Trends Anal. Chem. 82, 22–34 (2016).
Article Google Scholar
Korch, K. M. et al. ACS Catal. 12, 6737–6745 (2022).
Article Google Scholar