Spotlights

Chemical Synthesis Transformed by Solar Light: An Eco-Friendly and Innovative Approach with Titanium Dioxide
A team of researchers now present an eco-friendly and innovative approach for the blue light-promoted synthesis of heterocyclic thiochromenopyrroledione derivatives catalyzed by titanium dioxide.

Hitomi Yutaka, a Professor, and Pijush Kanti Roy, a Ph.D. candidate, both from the Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, and their research team propose a new titanium dioxide-catalyzed strategy for synthesizing thiochromenopyrroledione derivatives in blue light.

Thiochromenopyrroledione derivatives, while not yet recognized as a primary structure in pharmaceuticals, contain sulfur, an element frequently found in many drugs, indicating their potential in medicinal applications. Recently, the researchers demonstrated that the blue-light irradiation of 4-substituted thioanisoles and N-substituted maleimides with titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst led to a dual carbon–carbon bond formation reaction. The study presents titanium dioxide as an eco-friendly catalyst for thiochromenopyrroledione derivatives synthesis and advances innovative methods for organic synthesis.