Making Alkenes



 Alkens are used in plastics, rubber and fine chemicals. They are an important part of industry and chemistry. Transforming starting materials into alkenes continues to be a challenge. This is because olefin synthesis are limited to using aldehydes/ketones or alkenes as the starters.

Chemists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) are working on a way to convert alcohols, carboxylic acids, and alkanes into precious alkenes. Three scientists were directly involved in the study, Associate Professor Wu Jie and his team from NUS with Professor Zhao You and Professor Ma Junan from China's Tianjin University. 

The team used two known chemical reactions, Norrish type II reaction and photocatalytic radical addition. Light was involved in a seamless process.

The team used a vinyl ketone to help create alkens. It is referred to as an olefination reagent. They controlled side reactions of the vinyl keystone, and enhance the reaction.

The team published in Nature Chemistry. It is a unique method, using a one-pot operation. They can turn abundant feedstock chemicals into carboxylic acids and alkanes. It was previously thought that it would be difficult or impossible to creature in this manner.

Professor Wu summarizes: "As detailed in the research paper, this method provides an easy way to create useful alkenes from many different starting materials. In the future, we plan to extend this method to work with even more types of feedstock chemicals and to explore the control of alkene geometry. We believe our work will become a valuable tool for research in the pharmaceutical and agriculture fields."

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