Thursday, October 7, 2010

Can a chemist synthesize this molecule?

Research in chemistry is all about making new molecules.
I have written a few previous posts about organometallic compounds and transition metal catalysts. Hence, it was interesting to see the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for "palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis".
I got the picture above from the scientific background which is worth reading. The basic idea seems to be that one whats to form a carbon-carbon bond between R and R'' and this can be catalysed by first forming the R''-Pd-R intermediate.

What can theorists say about this chemistry? I found an interesting looking paper by Shaik (one of my favourite quantum chemsists) and collaborators which uses DFT to study this problem.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Science job openings in sunny Brisbane, Australia

Bribie Island, just north of Brisbane. The University of Queensland has just advertised several jobs that may be of interest to readers of t...