The facility in which Nature carries out complex organic synthesis is truly astounding, especially from the standpoint of environmental responsibility. Bonds are made in water, under mild conditions, and oftentimes using trace metal-containing catalysts. Indeed, with millions of years of “experience” to its credit, Nature is the perfect model. But since modern organic synthesis continues to be practiced, for the most part, in organic solvents, the “new rules” associated with doing chemistry in water are only recently starting to be uncovered. Processes are accumulating, indicating that real synthetic advances are to be anticipated, in addition to the payoff that such chemistry is minimizing waste generation, minimizing the need for energy to be invested (in the form of heating or cooling), and minimizing our reliance on unsustainable amounts of endangered transition metals. Taking advantage of the “nano-to-nano” effect (i.e., nanomicelles delivered to nanometal catalysts), shown below (top), a new nanoparticle catalyst formed under the influence of water (bottom), mediates Pd-catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck couplings using ppm levels of precious metal in recyclable water under mild conditions.

Environmentally responsible synthetic organic chemistry catalyst formation: Sculpted by, and used at the ppm level in water

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.