Liquid catalyst could transform chemical manufacturing
Researchers from Monash University, The University of Sydney and RMIT University claim to have developed a liquid catalyst that could transform the production of essential products across a range of industries — from life-saving pharmaceuticals and eco-friendly agrochemicals to advanced materials like plastics, polymers and electronic components. This breakthrough in liquid catalysis has been published in the journal Science Advances.
By dissolving palladium in liquid gallium the team, led by Associate Professor Md. Arifur Rahim from Monash University, created a self-regenerating catalytic system with unprecedented efficiency. The new catalyst has demonstrated extraordinary performance in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions — a Nobel Prize-winning technique used to form carbon–carbon (C‒C) bonds that is essential in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and materials science.
“This new catalyst takes advantage of the unique fluid-like behaviour of palladium atoms in a liquid gallium mixture, making it exceptionally effective at speeding up reactions — accelerating them up to 100,000 times faster than the best existing palladium catalysts,” Rahim said.
Explaining the process further, senior co-author Dr Andrew Christofferson, from RMIT, said: “We found that palladium atoms would sit just below the liquid surface, activate the gallium atoms above, and the reaction would happen there. This is completely different from a solid-state catalyst.”
“Another distinctive feature of this system is its operation as a true heterogeneous catalyst without the leaching of palladium ions, which can contaminate pharmaceutical products and present significant health risks,” added first author Md. Hasan Al Banna, from The University of Sydney.
Senior co-author Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, also from The University of Sydney, claimed the advancement is set to transform chemical manufacturing, delivering faster, safer and more sustainable production. The researchers hope their work will inspire further innovations in catalyst design, paving the way for greener, more efficient industrial processes worldwide.
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