A green alternative for drug production

Most of the production methods for medicines, pesticides and cell phone screens are expensive methods that generate large amounts of waste. Researchers have now succeeded in developing a green alternative that saves many resources

Researchers from the University of Göttingen in Germany have succeeded in developing a green alternative that saves resources for the production of medicines, pesticides and computer monitors. The findings of the new study have long been published in the scientific journal Nature Catalysis.

The environmentally friendly approach developed by Professor Lutz Ackermann and his research team at the Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany provides advantages compared to existing methods. As part of their innovative approach, the researchers use the non-toxic and common metal manganese instead of transition metals such as palladium or platinum. Normally, organic solvents, which are highly flammable and toxic, are the ones used in the existing production methods. In contrast, the new approach makes use of water, which is an environmentally friendly solvent. This approach is possible in light of the fact that during the reaction a manganese-carbon bond is formed. This bond is much more stable than the corresponding bonds between carbon and particularly active metals, metals such as lithium or magnesium.

"The new process makes it possible to cleave strong carbon-carbon bonds, which make up most of the bonds in organic compounds, and to convert the starting materials as a result into the desired product," explains the lead researcher. In order to achieve these results, the researchers combined findings from a laboratory experiment together with computer calculations. "Such a combination allowed us to gain detailed insight into the exact activity of our innovative catalyst; And this result, in turn, allowed us to use the process to produce other materials."

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