Cutting-Edge Research
in Kyoto University

ORG-CHEM

What Does a Catalyst Do? Catalyst opens the way for divergent synthesis of pharmaceuticals.

Various catalysts perform essential functions to produce a wide variety of chemical substances that are an indispensable part of our daily life. Therefore, the development of new catalysts to provide valuable chemical substances, which cannot be made by conventional methods, is a topic of great interest not only in the laboratory but also in industrial production research. During the course of my research to develop new organic reactions with catalysts, I found that one particular element, nickel, could facilitate the production of many chemicals for pharmaceuticals; the nickel catalyst opens the way for divergent synthesis of pharmaceuticals from readily available chemicals.

Takuya Kurahashi, PhD
Associate Professor,
Graduate School of Engineering