Click chemistry with sound-induced mechanocatalysis

Researchers have developed a new way of performing direct mechanocatalysis. The method uses resonant acoustic mixing and offers a simple, scalable and solvent-less alternative to traditional copper-catalysed azide–alkyne click coupling (CuAAC). Tomislav Friščić, at the University of Birmingham, UK, who led the work, says it could change how chemists think about chemical synthesis by allowing them to ‘switch completely from solution-based chemistry to essentially solvent-less or solvent-limited mechanochemical environments’. ‘We could be very close to a perfect way to conduct green chemistry,’ Friščić adds.