KAIST Unveils Strategy for Balancing Radical Chemistry

Radicals, atoms or molecules that readily react with other substances to form new bonds, are useful tools for building complex substances such as pharmaceuticals. But even when a radical is generated efficiently, the reaction cannot continue unless the catalyst returns to its original state. A KAIST research team has developed a new strategy that balances radical generation and catalyst regeneration, broadening the possibility of using even substrates that are difficult to activate to synthesize the complex molecules needed for pharmaceuticals and other applications.

KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on September 20 that a research team led by Professor Sarah Yunmi Lee from the Department of Chemistry has developed a method that uses a ligand, a molecule that attaches to a metal catalyst and controls its properties, to effectively regulate the process by which a copper catalyst generates a radical and then returns to its original state.