Scientists have come up with how to create important medicines environmentally, quickly and inexpensively

In modern society, gaseous alkanes (saturated hydrocarbons), such as propane, isobutane and methane,

are regularly burned to produce energy. These relatively cheap molecules can also be used to produce complex molecules for drugs or chemical products in agriculture.

Modern large-scale processes thatactivate these molecules for subsequent chemical reactions, occur at high temperatures and pressures. These are harsh reaction conditions, and they can be difficult and expensive to maintain. In addition, they lead to significant waste generation.

Research Team Led by Timothy Noelfrom Eindhoven Technical University in collaboration with researchers from Shanghai University (China), University of Pavia (Italy) and Vapourtec Ltd. (UK) developed a new alkane activation process using light, room temperature and reduced pressure.

This is a significant breakthrough in the transformationalkanes into useful building blocks for drugs and materials for other industries. Our approach allows the immediate use of alkanes for more complex molecules without many unwanted byproducts, while reducing contamination and simplifying the activation process.

Timothy Noel, Technical University Eindhoven

To implement this new process,researchers had to deal with two main problems. First, they needed a method that could easily break the bonds of the hydrocarbon group of CH with bond dissociation energy (BDE). CH bonds in methane are most difficult to break. Secondly, the treatment of gaseous alkanes requires special technologies that can bring them into close contact with the catalyst in a carefully controlled reaction medium. The researchers solved both of these problems by exciting alkanes with ultraviolet radiation (about 365 nanometers) using a suitable catalyst at room temperature.

The catalyst used isdecatungstate. When illuminated, it has sufficient energy to break CH bonds. Scientists have found that this works for methane, ethane, propane and isobutane.

A new approach to creating drugs faster than traditional methods, scientists say.

This new method paves the way for the cheaper production of some important drugs, given that the cost of activating the gases for their production will be lower.

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