This feels like college organic chemistry all over again.
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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Very interesting articles - both the phys.org one and journal submission it describes. I appreciate the research group's use of solvent-free and one-pot reactions wherever possible, it really shows their commitment to finding the most sustainable overall process.
The aromatization steps using palladium (0) are of course standard processes used by the oil refining industry, but I wonder if there are other methods (maybe using sulfur?) that don't involve the use of rare metals...probably wouldn't have the same atom economy as using catalytic Pd though, I am just curious rather than criticizing their choice.
Palladium is just incredibly efficient despite its cost. At this point, just making products from biological feedstocks is a step forward. It will take a lot more work to reduce reliance on precious metals. I would bet more on catalysts based on metals like Nickel, Iron, Cobalt or Copper to do a lot of the heavy lifting down the line.