The business unit Precious Metals Chemistry of Umicore is expanding its existing cross-coupling catalyst portfolio with Buchwald precatalysts that the Belgian materials technology group licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The licensing agreement comes after the company, in December 2017, agreed to acquire the metathesis catalyst business of Pasadena, California-based Materia to expand its portfolio of catalysts for the synthesis of complex pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals and polymers.

Buchwald’s catalyst technology is key to develop efficient cross-coupling reactions, one of the most elegant and versatile ways an organic chemist can develop sustainable chemical syntheses, be it for agrochemical, electronic, fine chemical or pharmaceutical applications.

Buchwald highly active precatalysts bear electron-rich and greatly tunable ligands and can be used in cross-coupling reactions for the formation of C-C, C–N, C–O, C–F, C–CF₃, and C–S bonds. These air, moisture and thermally stable catalysts allow to significantly reduce catalyst loadings and reaction times; even very challenging cross coupling reactions are now achievable in highly efficient conditions. With most recently developed precatalysts, the catalytic active species can even be formed without any reducing agent, which leads to simpler and more efficient reactions.

Umicore now offers to its customers worldwide a comprehensive list of Buchwald precatalysts from research to commercial scale in high and consistent quality. And the non-exclusive license agreement with MIT enables Umicore to provide full access to a proprietary, patent-protected cutting-edge technology and to support its customers with a broader portfolio of homogeneous catalysts and service offering.