On 6th October 2010, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2010 had been awarded to three organic chemists for their development of a chemical tool to build complex organic molecules.
Richard F. Heck of the University of Delaware, USA, Ei-ichi Negishi of Purdue University, Lafayette, USA and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University Japan, were selected by the Nobel Committee to share the prize.
Organic Molecules
Carbon-based molecules are the basis of the discipline of organic chemistry, and also form the majority of molecules associated with living things. Many natural substances, from the colours in flower petals to life saving medicines and useful polymers are based on molecules based on a structure of carbon atoms joined in chains and rings.
The importance of this kind of molecules means that to be able to synthesise them is an extremely useful activity. Unfortunately, the methods available to create carbon-carbon bonds have not been very sophisticated and were only able to synthesise simple molecules with many unwanted by-products.
Palladium Catalysts
The three winners of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2010 all developed important reaction mechanisms which utilize palladium catalysts to join organic molecules in a controlled way to form more complex organic molecules. Palladium is a rare metallic element in what is called the Platinum Group in the periodic table.
Catalysts can be defined as substances which take part in a chemical reaction, changing its rate (usually speeding it up) without being chemically changed at the end. The catalysts used by Heck, Negishi and Suzuki are organopalladium compounds, or molecules containing palladium combined with organic groups. Essentially these catalysts bring specific groups within molecules together so that they will react in a particular way.
Heck Reaction, Negeshi Coupling, Suzuki Reaction
Richard Heck published the results of his work in this area in 1972, centred around a reaction known as the Heck Reaction. This reaction uses palladium acetate as a catalyst to combine an unsaturated halide with an alkene to form a substituted alkene.
The Negeshi Coupling reaction was developed by Ei-ichi Negeshi. It uses a nickel or palladium catalyst to combine an organic zinc compound with an organic halide to form a carbon carbon bond.
The Suzuki Reaction uses an organopalladium catalyst to combine an aryl or vinyl boronic acid with an aryl or vinyl halide to produce poly-olefins, syrenes and substituted biphenyls. It was first published by Akira Suzuki in 1979.
These reactions were first discovered in the 1970s, but since then their use has increased rapidly as the organic chemistry community has realised the potential of these reactions for the controlled creation of a myriad of useful molecules. The Nobel Prize is a fitting accolade for these Molecule Builders!
Further Information:
The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize: Nobelprize.org
Simon Davies - Simon Davies has lived a varied life so far After completing a BSc in Chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK, he worked as a ...
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