Enantioselective organic catalysis

Chemists have always been inspired by nature. A few years ago, researchers dreamed of a new catalyst that, like most natural enzymes, does not require the use of expensive metals. "Organic catalysis" was born in the late 1990s, and it has never stopped since. According to Paolo Melchiorre, one of the leading experts in the field, organic catalysis is successful because "it is very democratic and everyone can use it without the need for expensive reagents or glove boxes, which makes many young studies The personnel were able to start their independent careers and quickly formed an international community of experts to become a great incubator for catalytic ideas without metals, "he explained.

Initially, some chemists criticized organic catalysis as not as green as it claims-it requires a high catalyst load, and it is difficult to recover the catalyst after the reaction, which seems to violate the definition of catalysis. However, Melchiorre points out how researchers can overcome most of these problems. He said the initial focus of organic catalysis was "developing new methods rather than reducing catalyst load."
However, because chemists understand the industrial impact that reducing catalyst usage can have, they use only a few millionths of organic catalysts to develop a chiral carbon-carbon bond approach. "This is still not comparable to metal, but the cost is much lower," he added.

Chemists have also developed solutions for better catalyst recovery-Ben List fixed them on a solid substrate like nylon, which is just one of many possible answers. Melchiorre emphasized how organic catalysis grows in the field of chemistry and ultimately plays a role in other fields, especially photocatalytic oxidation catalysis, which allows new types of transformation: "[David] MacMillan creates a link between the two fields. Light activation makes aldehydes and The alkylation reaction of enamines becomes possible. This reaction cannot be accomplished by classical organic catalysis. "Many other fields have emerged from organic catalysis, and now the industry has expanded asymmetric organic catalysis schemes to synthesize fine chemicals and drug.
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