A noble cause
Event preview: Young Chemist in Industry symposium, 16 April
2008
 On Wednesday 16 April
2008, the SCI Fine Chemicals
Technical Group will hold a one-day
meeting at SCI, London, entitled:
‘A noble cause: modern gold and
platinum group catalysis’.
The ability of gold and platinum
group catalysts to effect powerful
atom-economic transformations
has led to a marked increase
in their utilisation for organic
synthesis. It is surprising that
gold has taken so long to find a
place in catalysis. The reason for
this delay is nothing to do with
cost, since the more commonlyused
platinum catalysts are much
more expensive than gold. Much
of the reason is simply due to the
assumption that gold is unreactive.
However, gold salts have been
known for some time to have a
high affinity for carbon-carbon
triple bonds (known as alkyne
bonds). The simple reactions of
these gold salts with alkynes are
the basis of the current
catalytic gold
rush.
Compounds such
as gold chloride
(AuCl) are now frequently
adopted by
chemists as catalysts for
new chemical transformations.
Gold salts can promote
chemical transformations
at room temperature with
reaction times of a few minutes.
This contrasts with other metalcatalysed
reactions that require
much higher temperatures and
longer reaction times. These
catalysts are already finding
their way into the research chemists’
synthetic toolbox.
This one-day meeting will
bring together six of the leading
researchers in this field from
Europe and the USA. These are:
Dr Chris Barnard, Johnson
Matthey, UK; Prof Antonio
Echavarren, Institute
of Chemical Research of
Catalonia (ICIQ), Tarragona in
Spain; Dr Fabien Gagosz, Ecole
Polytechnique, Palaiseau in
France; Prof Stephen Hashmi,
Heidelberg in Germany; Dr Julian
Knight, University of Newcastle,
UK; and Prof Dean Toste,
University of California, Berkeley,
USA.
It will showcase the latest advances
in noble metal catalysis
and provide an ideal opportunity
for organic chemists from industry
and academia to update
themselves on current developments
in this rapidly expanding
research area.
SCI Fine Chemicals Technical
Group
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