The American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable awarded $300,000 in grants to eight research groups across the world, two of which are at the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry. These grants support research to further green chemistry in pharmaceutical discovery, development, and manufacturing. UW-Madison was the only institution with two projects funded.
The Weix group received the award for “Metal-Mediated Electrochemistry: A New Frontier for Surfactants,” which aims to decrease the environmental impact of synthetic electrochemistry by running the reactions in water/surfactant mixtures instead of pure organic solvents. While great advancements have been made in electrochemistry recently, there is usually a need for dipolar aprotic solvents that are less desirable to use on larger scale. This grant leverages the expertise of UW-Madison in electrochemistry with my group’s expertise in transition-metal catalysis.
The Yoon group received the award for “Oxidative C–N Cross-Coupling Enabled by Iron Photochemistry”. The central goal of this project is to develop an innovative and sustainable new paradigm for oxidative C–N, C–C, and C–O cross-coupling reactions. This conceptually novel strategy uses non-toxic, earth-abundant iron salts as both photocatalysts and terminal oxidants.
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