ChemCafé

I went yesterday to the chemical stores to get a new 2.5L bottle of acetonitrile, and I was stunned to see the price had moreless quadrupled since the last time I bought this solvent… I was aware of the world shortage of this compound, but had never so directly observed its consequences. The funny thing [...]

Some time ago came to Lausanne Prof. Lanny S. Liebeskind from Emory University in Atlanta, co-inventor of the Liebeskind-Srogl coupling. This coupling allows the formation of a new C-C bond starting from a thioester and a boronic acid. The reaction usually requires catalytical palladium as well as a copper-based co-catalyst, but a variation using only [...]