Chemists discover new reactivity of strained molecules

Frank Glorius (left) with Subhabrata Dutta, Tiffany O. Paulisch, Roman Kleinmans
Frank Glorius (left) with Subhabrata Dutta, Tiffany O. Paulisch, Roman Kleinmans and Tobias Pinkert (from left) from the ’Team Glorius’. © University of Münster - Peter Dziemba
Frank Glorius ( left ) with Subhabrata Dutta, Tiffany O. Paulisch, Roman Kleinmans and Tobias Pinkert ( from left ) from the 'Team Glorius'. University of Münster - Peter Dziemba In synthetic organic chemistry, so-called cycloadditions are a particularly important class of reactions. With this type of reaction, ring-shaped molecules can be constructed simply and efficiently by joining ("adding") two compounds that each contain double bonds. A team led by Frank Glorius from the University of Münster has now succeeded in performing an unconventional cycloaddition in which a carbon-carbon double bond reacts with a carbon-carbon single bond. In double bonds, atoms are connected by two pairs of electrons; in single bonds, only one pair of electrons is involved. The key to success was the use of particularly "strained" single bonds. To enable mild reaction conditions, the chemists used a photosensitizer, a catalyst that drives the reaction using light energy.
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