📰 Transform the most powerful greenhouse gas into compounds of interest

While alarmist reports on climate change follow one another, a team from the Institute of Molecular and Supramolecular Chemistry and Biochemistry (CNRS/Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1) in collaboration with the ENS de Lyon and theInstitute (An institute is a permanent organization created for a certain purpose. It is…) of Chemistry (Chemistry is a natural science divided into several specialties, to…) Radical of Aix (AIX is IBM’s UNIX-like operating system. AIX stands for Advanced…) Marseilles university (A university is an institution of higher education whose objective is the…) proposes a method for valuing a gas (A gas is a set of atoms or molecules very weakly bound and…) to greenhouse effect (The greenhouse effect is a natural process which, for a given absorption of energy…) mighty, thesulfur hexafluoride (Sulfur hexafluoride is a chemical compound of sulfur and fluorine, with the formula…), in order to generate compounds with high added value. These results have just been published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

When discussing the subject of global warming (Global warming, also called global warming, or…)eyes are very often turned towards the carbon dioxide (Carbon dioxide, commonly known as carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide, is a…) (CO₂). However, despite being one of the main greenhouse gases greenhouse (A greenhouse is a generally closed structure intended for production…)CO₂ is far from being the most powerful.

This title is indeed held by the hexafluoride of sulfur (Sulfur is a chemical element of the chalcogen family, symbol S and…) (SF₆), a gas whose emissions must be limited following the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 because of its Global Warming potential 23,900 times higher than that of CO₂ and its duration life (Life is the name given 🙂 in L’atmosphere (The word atmosphere can have several meanings:) 3200 years old. Despite these flaws, the SF₆ is a unique gas whose strong density (The density or relative density of a body is the ratio of its density to the…) and the big one dielectric constant (The dielectric constant or electric constant, also called vacuum permittivity or…) earn him many benefits. It quickly found its place on an industrial scale thanks to its non-toxicity, its most widespread application being the electrical insulation of high-voltage equipment which represents 80% of everything (The whole understood as the whole of what exists is often interpreted as the world or…) the F₆ product.

If alternatives (Alternatives (original title: Destiny Three Times) is a novel by Fritz Leiber published…) to SF6 are being studied to gradually replace this greenhouse gas in electrical installations, the recovery of existing stocks of SF6 into products with high added value rather than releasing it into the atmosphere is an issue scientific (A scientist is a person who is dedicated to the study of a science or sciences and who…) current major. This is what a team from the Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Biochemistry is the scientific discipline that studies the chemical reactions that take place…) Molecular and Supramolecular (CNRS/Claude-Bernard Lyon 1 University/INSA Lyon/ESCPE Lyon) in collaboration with ENS de Lyon and the Institute of Radical Chemistry (CNRS/Aix Marseille University).

Researchers have developed a new strategy (Strategy – from the Greek stratos which means « army » and ageîn which means…) ofenable (Activation may refer to:) SF connections₆ under mild conditions. Their process, which relies on the activation under visible light (Visible light, also called visible spectrum or optical spectrum is the part of…) of SF6 by an amine, makes it possible to obtain new reagents which can be used directly to insert fluorine (Fluorine is a chemical element with symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the…) or fluorinated groups (SF₅) on organic molecules. The latter greatly modify the properties of the organic compounds that carry them and are highly sought after, particularly in the agrochemical and pharmaceutical fields. The process, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Editionhas a double environmental interest by allowing the recovery of a greenhouse gas and its use to form compounds of interest which would otherwise have required the use of generally harmful products to be synthesized.

Reference:
Metal-Free SF₆ Activation: A New SF₅-Based Reagent Enables Deoxyfluorination and Pentafluorosulfanylation Reactions,
Alexis Taponard, Tristan Jarrosson, Maurice Medebielle, Lhoussain Khrouz, Julie Broggi and Anis Tlili, Angewandte Chemie International Edition – April 2022
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202204623

contacts:
– Anise Tlili – Searcher (A researcher (fem. researcher) refers to a person whose job is to do research…) at the Institute of Molecular and Supramolecular Chemistry and Biochemistry (CNRS/Claude-Bernard Lyon 1 University) –
anis.tlili at univ-lyon1.fr
– Stéphanie Younès – Manager Communication (Communication concerns both man (intra-psychic, interpersonal communication, etc.) – Institute of Chemistry of CNRS (The National Center for Scientific Research, better known by its acronym CNRS, is the largest…) – inc.communication at cnrs.fr
– Anne-Valérie Ruzette – Scientific Officer for Communication – CNRS Institute of Chemistry – anne-valerie.ruzette at cnrs.fr
– Christophe Cartier says Mill (A mill is a machine for grinding cereal grains into flour and, by analogy,…) – Researcher at the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry & Project Manager for scientific communication at the INC
– inc.communication at cnrs.fr