New research examines a class of reactions between neutral free radicals and neutral molecules that, unlike most reactions, happen rapidly at very low temperatures. Chemical reactions generally accelerate when temperature increase. However, in today’s issue of Science Magazine [1] a research group from France revealed a class of gas-phase reaction between oxygen atoms and alkenes […]

Has anyone seen today’s issue of Science? There is a research paper by Shannon Yan and colleagues “Do Vibrational Excitations of CHD3 Preferentially Promote Reactivity Toward the Chlorine Atom?” I had a difficult time following the authors – physical-molecular chemistry is not my strongest field, but nevertheless … The study shows the energy of the […]

For those of you who are into organic synthesis. May 25th issue of Science published a paper by David R. Stuart and Keith Fagnou from University of Ottawa (Canada) – “The Catalytic Cross-Coupling of Unactivated Arenes”. They report that aromatic compounds can be coupled without having to preactivate the reactants. This method employs palladium and […]