A new Iron based process could make drugs and perfumes not only safer, but greener as well.
The series of methods work to create iron-based catalysts necessary in the creation of "alcohols and amines" used in the drug and perfume industries, a University of Toronto news release reported. This method is believed to be more environmentally friendly, economical, and safer than today's procedures.
Earth has an abundance of Iron (it's the fifth most plentiful naturally-occurring metal), and the researchers decided to take full advantage of it. They used it as a replacement for less abundant elements such as "ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and platinum." These elements are often used in creating hydrogen catalysts.
"We found a way to make the ferrous form of iron behave in a catalytic process much more efficiently than a precious metal. We did this by finding molecules containing nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon and hydrogen, that bond to, and enhance, the reactivity of iron," U of T chemistry professor Robert Morris, principal investigator of the study, said.
According to the researcher Iron is 10,000 times cheaper than ruthenium.
"Less than 200 metric tons of platinum-type metals are mined in the world every year, not all of it can be recycled after use, it is not essential to life, and it can be toxic," Morris said.
The research team produced multiple varieties of alcohol with different properties that could be used to produce different flavors and smells and was also useful in drug synthesis.
They found a precursor alcohol to a cancer treatment could be created through the "hydrogenation process catalyzed by iron." The team discovered their version was a better alternative to ruthenium-based catalysts.
"There is a research effort world-wide to make chemical processes more sustainable and green by replacing the rare, expensive and potentially toxic elements used in hydrogenation, catalytic converters in cars, fuel cells for the efficient conversion of chemical energy into electricity, and silicone coatings, with abundant ions such as iron," Morris said.
