I am not chemist enough to quite grasp the significance of this bit o news from AGNT:
>>FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 18, 2001--Argonaut Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:AGNT - news) today announced the receipt of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant awarded by the office of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant will be used to fund research focused on the technical and commercial feasibility of a new class of polymer-supported palladium catalysts.
Several widely used chemical methodologies, Suzuki and Heck reactions, require homogeneous palladium catalysts and are generally restricted to smaller scale reactions in R&D efforts. The use of homogeneous palladium-catalyzed reactions is of great interest for fine chemical manufacturing for reasons of synthetic efficiency and reduced environmental waste. However, scientists are reluctant to adopt these methodologies for commercial fine chemical manufacturing, because of difficulties associated with the use of homogeneous catalysts. The potential development of polymer supported catalysts could significantly aid the adoption of these reactions in commercial settings.
``The SBIR grant award for the development of this new class of polymers further validates Argonaut's chemistry expertise,'' stated Jeff Labadie, Ph.D., Argonaut's Vice President, Chemistry. ``We are finding that our ability to creatively address chemistry bottlenecks, not only with instrumentation, but also with the development of novel reagents and polymers is critical to our success with pharmaceutical and chemical companies.''<<
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Suzuki and Heck reactions? Opposite of Kawasaki and Eureka reactions, I suppose. <g>
Cheers, Tuck |
