Palladium Catalyzed Coupling (Chemistry Nobel Prize 2010)

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NYT

Nobel 

From Sciam:

``Negishi, along with Richard Heck of the University of Delaware and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University in Japan, share the Nobel for developing chemical reactions that the scientists arrived at independently and that enable the building of complex organic compounds with wide application in medicine, industry and agriculture. The key to all three slightly different reactions is the element palladium, a relatively rare silvery-white metal that provides a setting that allows carbon atoms or compounds with carbon in them to bond to each other. In fact, the palladium bonds with the carbon atoms, drawing them together like a matchmaker. Once close enough, the carbons form their own attachment and drop the palladium, enabling the catalyst to produce more such pairings.''