Biomolecule synthesis by heat activation methods such as microwaves

Project: Biomolecule synthesis by heat activation methods such as microwaves

Establishments: l'Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron, UMR 5247 du CNRS-Universités Montpellier 1 & 2.

Research themes: Environment, sustainable development in the area of transport.

For the duration of: 2006/2009

Project leader: Pierrick Nun, project PhD student

Link: http://www.ibmm.univ-montp1.fr/

Descriptive : The purpose of this project is to develop synthetic methods that do not require the use of an organic solvent, either during the reaction itself, or during the purification step. Two types of apparatus were thus used: microwaves and mechanical activation via a ball grinder.The use of microwaves allow us to perform the Petasis reaction, along with the Suzuki coupling reaction, both of which are widely used, particularly in the field of biomolecule synthesis..

Mechanical activation by means of a ball grinder, enabled us to achieve excellent results in the preparation of nitrones and hydrazones, but also in peptide synthesis. One of the very first examples of solvent-free asymmetric synthesis, concerning the alkylation of Schiff bases used to prepare enantiomerically pure amino acids, was successfully performed.

The results obtained are of particular interest from an environmental standpoint as considerably less solvents are used, but also from a chemical standpoint as the developed methods give equivalent or even better results than those achieved in solution.