Using carbon dioxide to produce drugs
Biologically active chemicals such as pharmaceuticals are generally produced using several starting ingredients like salts, oxidants and petroleum-based substrates. Since these can be expensive and generate waste, chemists are developing so-called perfect chemical reactions that maximise yield from minimal ingredients without generating waste. The EU-funded ALCO2HOL (Chasing sustainability: Synthesis of carboxylic acids from simple alcohols via CO2 fixation) initiative aimed to use biomass-derived CO2 as waste-free starting material for chemical reactions. Many pharmaceuticals and other biologically active compounds require a carbon- and oxygen-containing organic compound called carboxylic acid for the molecule or drug to function properly. ALCO2HOL devised a reaction that allowed researchers to insert CO2 into different organic molecules to create carboxylic acid derivatives. Researchers demonstrated that they could react CO2 with a variety of substrates, including structurally complex molecules, to produce carboxylic acid-containing compounds with different functions. These reactions generated no waste and required only a simple alcohol or similar organic molecule, a nickel catalyst and biomass-derived CO2. Given the importance of using renewable resources to create a sustainable society, ALCO2HOL's new methods may provide a non-petroleum alternative to producing organic chemicals.
