Chemists give chance a helping hand

Whether they are synthetic materials such as PET and Teflon, medicines or flavourings, life without synthetically produced compounds is barely conceivable in our everyday lives today. The chemical industry depends on efficient, long-term methods of producing synthetically derived molecules. For this purpose, chemists often use catalysts, i.e. additives with which they can facilitate and control chemical reactions. But how are such reactions discovered and developed? A high degree of knowledge and understanding are required - but, not infrequently, chance also plays a decisive role. A team of chemists at the University of Münster (Germany) have developed a strategy for generating such "random hits" in a systematic way, with the aim of discovering new, unexpected reactions. The study has been published in the "Chem" journal. Background and method: The process of systematically conducting a large number of experiments is called 'screening' and is established practice in particular in pharmaceutical research relating to active ingredients.