Carin Seechurn, Associate Director – Technology Solutions – Sinocompound

How does Sinocompound ensure that customers can access the best-performing catalysts and ligands, particularly in the area of non-PGM catalysis and rarer catalyst and ligand technologies like Pd G6 precats, from R&D to manufacturing phases?
We are always on the look-out for new, promising technologies. For instance, in the area of non-PGM catalysis we are working with leading academics (Prof. Mark Stradiotto and Prof. Keary Engle) to make novel nickel catalysts commercially available to industrial chemists. Similarly in the copper catalysis area we have collaborated with Prof. Dan Weix and Prof. Dawei Ma to make their ligands for cross-coupling chemistry available. Regarding palladium G6 pre-catalysts, developed by Prof. Buchwald’s research group, we have launched a catalyst kit that contains 8 pre-catalysts, and are working to expand this series to additional ligands, too. If any of these catalysts or ligands were to be a hit in a specific reaction, with more than twenty 100L reactors in the R&D laboratories, we can quickly scale up from the first few grams to the first single kilograms without tech transfer to the manufacturing plant. This ensures fast delivery of the quantities needed, going through the first clinical trial phases. When the larger kilogram quantities are required, our plant at Tongling with an annual capacity of 50 metric tonnes, hosts forty 100-500L and twenty-three 1,000-3,000 reactors. This means that several catalysts/ligands can be made in parallel to shorten lead times. Our equipment and set-up, both in the R&D labs and on the plant, is chosen and designed with challenging organometallic chemistry in mind.

What advantages can nickel catalysts offer as an alternative to precious metal catalysis in cross-coupling reactions, and how do these catalysts address the challenges associated with the cost and availability of precious metals?
Non-PGM (platinum group metal) based catalysts, like nickel, have recently become the focus of several R&D groups, with the objective to potentially finding an alternative to PGM catalysts, like palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, andiridium. The situation is not as simple as viewing nickel catalysts as replacements for palladium catalysts. We would suggest that both technologies are considered complementary, and in order to assess which one to move forward with, it is necessary to take a holistic approach and consider the overall process rather than comparing the catalysts only. Nickel as a metal is without doubt considerably cheaper than palladium (which is the metal it mostly replaces in cross-coupling reactions), and this certainly has the potential to result in an overall cheaper process. In addition, nickel may be able to mediate bond disconnections that PGM metals, like palladium, are not capable of doing, thereby offering alternative disconnection strategies when evaluating and comparing routes of synthesis.