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BookmarkScienceDaily (May 29, 2007) — In this week’s issue of Science, an article entitled The Catalytic Cross-Coupling of Unactivated Arenes will be published by Dave Stuart, uOttawa PhD student, along with his supervisor Dr. Keith Fagnou, both from the Department of Chemistry.
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The researchers have found a solution to a problem that is more than 100 years old—how to couple two unactivated carbon atoms together with the help of a catalyst.
The molecules formed – called biaryl molecules – are the building blocks of light emitting diodes (LEDs), electron transport devices and liquid crystals found in modern LCD screens, and are found in approximately one in 20 medicines on the market today, such as Vancomycin, a last resort antibiotic and Glivec, an anti-cancer agent. Stuart’s solution will allow chemists to create biaryl molecules in a much more environmentally-friendly way and reduce costs significantly.
Stuart’s work was described as “one of the most important discoveries in this field” and it will “be used as a flagship for this fundamental area of chemical science.”
