This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals are produced industrially using a wide range of chemical reactions. These processes need to become more efficient, less expensive, and more sustainable.
Behind a glass wall in the Pieber Lab at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), blue LED lamps shine light onto small reaction vessels. The light does more than illuminate them: It supplies the energy that fuels a nickel catalyst to drive chemical reactions. In a new study published in Nature Catalysis, the research group led by Bartholomäus Pieber shows that a carefully designed nickel catalyst can make light-driven chemical synthesis more versatile and efficient.
Pieber and his team members Aleksander Bena, Trisha Banik, Christos Giannoudis, Florian Ortis, Haralds Baunis and Gayathri Palissery (all ISTA), in collaboration with Daniel Bím of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, developed a new catalytic system that selectively and efficiently joins chemical building blocks using very small amounts of nickel. Drugs don't grow on trees—they are produced through multistep chemical processes that require a wide range of reactions. One of the most widely used strategies for building these molecules is cross-coupling chemistry, in which two molecular building blocks are joined by a new chemical bond with the help of a metal catalyst.
A catalyst is a substance that enables or speeds up a chemical reaction without being consumed itself. Catalysts often consist of single metal atoms bound to organic molecules called ligands. These ligands influence how the metal behaves and can be designed to fine-tune its catalytic properties.
In many important cross-coupling reactions, the catalyst is based on a palladium atom. The importance of this approach was recognized with the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for their development of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions in organic synthesis. These reactions have become influential in making complex molecules, including pharmaceuticals.
Palladium catalysts are highly efficient, but the noble metal is scarce and expensive. About 10 years ago, studies showed that a nickel catalyst combined with a second catalyst that converts visible light into "chemical energy" could be used instead of palladium. This has the potential to make these reactions cheaper and more sustainable.
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