MSGID: 1:317/3 627201b4   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    A better way to create compounds for pharmaceuticals, other chemicals   
      
      
     Date:   
         May 3, 2022   
     Source:   
         Ohio State University   
     Summary:   
         What do gunpowder, penicillin and Teflon all have in common? They   
         were inventions that took the world by storm, but they were all   
         created by complete accident.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   What do gunpowder, penicillin and Teflon all have in common? They were   
   inventions that took the world by storm, but they were all created by   
   complete accident.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   In a new study published in the journalScience,researchers used   
   electricity to develop a tool that may make it easier and cheaper to   
   fabricate the compounds used in pharmaceuticals and other natural   
   products. Yet this invention, too, joins the ranks of the many   
   unanticipated innovations that came before it.   
      
   Christo Sevov, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of   
   chemistry and biochemistry at The Ohio State University, was part of a   
   team that initially sought to prepare a catalyst that could be activated   
   by electricity to make the bonds of the targeted drug compounds.   
      
   Their study's findings suggest a general guideline for taking inexpensive   
   and widely abundant materials, and using them to create complex compounds   
   that wouldn't normally work together. Streamlining this chemical process   
   could allow researchers to safely create more valuable products with   
   fewer steps and less waste.   
      
   But to actually facilitate their chemical reactions in the lab, instead   
   of using high-energy reagents, or added substances, as is customary when   
   synthesizing materials, Sevov's team utilized the power of electricity.   
      
   Because electricity is ecologically sustainable, there's recently been a   
   push in the industrial sector to move toward the use of electrochemistry   
   to foster chemical change.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   "It's a very attractive way to do chemistry these days, because we have   
   total control over how we run these reactions," Sevov said.   
      
   The research has broad applications in medicine, and in the creation of   
   products like agrichemicals (like pesticides or herbicides) and certain   
   plastics. But Sevov's discovery, while seemingly serendipitous, took   
   lots of hard work and patience to get right.   
      
   "It took maybe three months of testing different combinations of   
   additives, until all of a sudden something worked and it worked   
   phenomenally well," Sevov said. "Getting to that complex allowed us to   
   stitch together materials that are very difficult to stitch together under   
   normal circumstances."  Because the precious metals many chemists use   
   as catalysts can cost a pretty penny, Sevov's team chose a nickel atom   
   as the catalyst for their tool. In chemistry, catalysts are responsible   
   for increasing or decreasing the rate of the chemical reaction as they   
   make and create bonds.   
      
   "Being able to use catalysts that are very inexpensive, like nickel,   
   is very beneficial to everyone in the entire community in general,"   
   he said. Besides being a cheap alternative for businesses that produce   
   pharmaceuticals, plastics and polymers, using nickel also keeps the cost   
   of food products down. For example, if farmers had to pay more for the   
   agrichemicals these chemical reactions help create, the price of their   
   crop would rise proportionally, Sevov said.   
      
   To build on their research further, the team will go on to collaborate   
   with Merck, a multinational pharmaceutical company, to try creating other   
   products using more difficult reactions and more complex molecules. But   
   with their latest discovery, Sevov said that he's optimistic that their   
   work will start to create brand new avenues in the field of chemistry.   
      
   "We're going to take advantage of this really reactive intermediate and   
   see how far we can run with it," Sevov said.   
      
   Co-authors include Taylor Hamby and Matthew Lalama of Ohio State. This   
   research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio_State_University. Original   
   written by Tatyana Woodall. Note: Content may be edited for style   
   and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Taylor B. Hamby, Matthew J. LaLama, Christo S. Sevov. Controlling Ni   
         redox states by dynamic ligand exchange for electroreductive   
         Csp3-Csp2 coupling. Science, 2022; 376 (6591): 410 DOI:   
         10.1126/science.abo0039   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220503091554.htm   
      
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