UW Chemists Break Electron Transfer Selectivity Barrier

Chemists at the United States — University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, in collaboration with Colorado State University and the University of Colorado Boulder, have developed a fundamentally novel strategy for electron-transfer selectivity, published in Nature. Their approach uses a catalyst that ejects an electron directly into solvent, creating a free electron that indiscriminately attaches to the first molecule it encounters, bypassing the traditional thermodynamic preference for the more easily reduced partner. Mechanistic studies by collaborators revealed that selectivity emerges after electron transfer, as the desired reactant proceeds toward product while the competing partner is recycled. This new framework for designing redox reactions could enable previously inaccessible coupling reactions, potentially impacting the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and advanced materials.