Performing chemical reactions in a laboratory can sometimes be laborious, especially when handling reagents and catalysts that are sensitive to oxygen or moisture. A researcher must carefully weigh out the desired amount, and must do so in sterilized containers, known as glove boxes, that provide a chemically inert atmosphere.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with a solution to this problem that could make it much easier for laboratories to prepare common compounds for use in a range of chemical transformations. They have developed wax capsules that can be filled with premeasured reagents and catalysts. These can simply be added to a reaction vessel and heated to above the melting point of the wax (58–62°C) to release the capsule’s contents.
“We thought that if we could enclose multiple reagents and catalysts in some way and actually know how much we put in, we could dramatically simplify chemical synthesis with these single-use capsules,” says Aaron Sather, a chemistry postdoc at MIT.
Led by Sather, the scientists chose...
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