The Lab Notes

A recent paper by Jonathan H. George et al at the University of Adelaide describes a biomimetic total synthesis of the Rhododendron meroterpenoids rubiginosins A and G. Can you identify reagents or intermediates B, D, E and H? Answers and a reference will be posted in a month, along with another problem. Enjoy!    

Any new synthetic methodology, as well as advancing the state of the art, should also consider a few other key criteria, one of which is to build complexity from common feedstock materials- ideally using cheap and environmentally friendly reagents and raw materials. Unactivated (or unsubstituted) olefins, used largely by the polymer industry, represent a rich…

My first experiences of radical chlorination where something of a baptism of fire. Generation of chlorine radicals from chlorine gas under intense UV irradiation in a custom-made photochemical flow reactor was as scary as it sounds to a very young, yet to be trained chemistry technician starting out in his carrier in the chemical industry.…

Perhaps the most atom economical method for introduction of a carbonyl group into an organic substrate is to use carbon monoxide.1 Millions of tonnes of bulk chemicals are converted to various carbonyl-containing derivatives that are essential commodity products in daily life using this simple C1 unit year on year. Not surprisingly the molecule has a…

With many of our events going ONLINE, we have invested in some new software to allow us to share all our course manuals electronically in an e-Reader format. You can view how this works below by clicking on our NEW Electronic Course Brochure:

Do you have a topic that you would like to share with our international audience of organic chemists? We are currently inviting speakers to present technical papers at our events this year.   Flow Chemistry & Continuous Processing Conference - ONLINE - 10-11 May Catalysis in the Fine Chemicals Industries Conference - ONLINE - 2-3…

Iridium is ubiquitous in organic synthesis. In the last decade alone we have seen its impact as a phtoredox catalyst for a wide range of light-driven reactions that are difficult to achieve using traditional synthetic methods.1 In addition, iridium has rich utility in C-H activation chemistry- a recent review by Cramer highlighting chiral complexes as…

As businesses around the world have had to postpone and cancel live meetings, conferences and training courses in response to COVID-19 disease, workplace and group training has become one of the earliest and hardest-hit business activities. We have found that 100% of companies we work with across the globe, have had to postpone or cancel their…

Two recent papers in Science have described Iridium catalysed C-H borylation of alkyl C-H bonds. The first paper1 reports a C-H borylation of primary C-H bonds.  Initial experiments showed that dibutyl ether (used as substrate and solvent) could be converted to BuO(CH2)4Bpin and similarly THF could be borylated in the 3-position with 2-methylphenanthroline (2-mphen) as…

Three recent papers from the groups of Nagy and Qu have discussed different options for designing and scaling up crystallisation processes to achieve polymorph control and obtain the correct particle size distribution (PSD). The first two papers1,2 describe using PAT (online analysis) with feedback control to design an antisolvent crystallisation process for indomethacin.  Each paper…