Researchers pioneer use of capsules to save materials, streamline chemical reactions
Chemists working in a variety of industries and fields typically go through a laborious process to measure and mix reagents for each reaction they perform. And many of the common reagents they use sit for months or years on shelves in laboratories, where they can react with oxygen and water in the atmosphere, rendering them useless. In a paper published this week in Nature, researchers at MIT describe a technique that could help avoid this costly waste, and greatly reduce the number of steps a chemist must perform to prepare common compounds for use in a wide range of chemical transformations. Aaron C. Sather, the lead author of the paper, is a postdoc in the lab of Stephen Buchwald, the Camille Dreyfus Professor in Chemistry. He and his colleagues have harnessed the power of a small, simple technology that could transform the benchtop practice of organic chemistry: the capsule. Some labs use what...