In June of 1886 (26th to be precise) the French chemist Henri Mossian passed an electric current through a solution of KHF2 in anhydrous HF and became the first person to generate fluorine. Rather him than me. But he did, quite rightly, win a Nobel prize for his efforts in 1905. Since then, methods to

The scheme below shows the synthesis of a late-stage intermediate towards AZD9833, a compound identified by AstraZeneca as a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) and antagonist that is currently in phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of ER+ breast cancer. Can you identify reagents or intermediates A, B and C? Answers and a reference

Last month I posted a scheme from showing Oppolzer’s synthesis of racemic Lysergic acid and asked if you could identify reagents or intermediates G, I, and H. Below are the answers! You can read more here in the full reference: W. Oppolzer et al, Helv. Chim. Acta 1981, 64, 478–481  

In 1981 Oppolzer published a short, racemic synthesis of Lysergic acid. Below is a scheme of the early steps in the synthesis. Can you identify reagents or intermediates G, I and H? Answers and a reference will be posted in late June, along with another problem. Enjoy!  

Last month I posted a scheme from a paper by a team from Merck describing the synthesis of a soluble guanylate cyclase (cGC) stimulator of interest for the treatment of hypertension and asked if you could identify reagents or intermediates B, F, and the target compound H. Below are the answers! You can read more here in

A recent paper by a team from Merck describe the synthesis of a soluble guanylate cyclase (cGC) stimulator of interest for the treatment of hypertension. Can you identify reagents or intermediates B, F and the target compound H? Answers and a reference will be posted in May, along with another problem. Enjoy!

Last month I posted a scheme from a paper by Jonathan H. George et al at the University of Adelaide describing a biomimetic total synthesis of the Rhododendron meroterpenoids rubiginosins A and G and asked if you could identify reagents or intermediates B, D, E and H. Below are the answers! You can read more here

Did you know that we have a ‘Job Area’ on our website? If you have a vacancy and are looking for a process chemist or chemical engineer, why not post your position on our website? We have 1,000’s of visitors looking at our site for process chemistry training and events, so thought this is an

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!    

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