1. Nicholas Leadbeater, University of Connecticut
Development of coupling reactions catalyzed by ultra-low
concentrations of metal catalysts using microwave heating
Nicholas Leadbeater, University of Connecticut
We all know that the fastest way to heat something at home is in the microwave. The same is true for chemists - Microwave heating offers a fast and efficient way to make reactions go.
By using microwave heating we can do reactions that usually require a lot of metal catalyst with really low concentrations instead. In addition, we can use water as a solvent instead of organic solvents
We use scientific microwave apparatus because it is safer and more reliable than
home microwaves. Using these we can make from milli-grams to multi-grams of compounds
In the first year of our PRF grant, among other things, we have developed a way of doing
reactions involving carbon monoxide in our microwave. Our reactions are very efficient and
we can use just one equivalent of carbon monoxide. This means that we can minimize the amounts of the toxic carbon monoxide gas required so it is safer than usual, especially on a large scale - the added advantage is that the reaction is quick (it’s done it 10 minutes) and uses the low concentrations of metal catalysts
clean
fast
safe