"Currently in the field of organic chemistry, we have done a lot of research on carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements, but if we study: for example, phosphorus and oxygen, how to connect phosphorus and oxygen atoms? For example, sulfur and oxygen atoms There are no σ (pie) bonds in phosphorus compounds, but why is the structure still stable? These are thought-provoking questions."
Carl Barry Sharpless. IC infographic
"Why do seals eat without arms? Do we really know the size of the earth?" Carl Barry Sharpless, two-time Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, at the 5th World's Leading Scientists Forum on the morning of November 4 ——In the sub-forum of the new model of drug discovery, he threw out his question. "We've made some achievements, but we still don't know enough about nature."
Sharpless believes that the mysteries of nature are hidden in this ancient periodic table. At the forum, Sharpless constantly emphasized the importance of the periodic table. His mouse slid between rows of element symbols, and finally settled on carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements. "At present, in the field of organic chemistry, we have done a lot of research on carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements, but if we study: for example, phosphorus and oxygen, how to connect phosphorus and oxygen atoms? For example, sulfur and phosphorus There are no σ (pie) bonds in the compound of , but why is the structure still stable? These are intriguing questions," said Sharpless.
In 2001, Carl Barry Sharpless shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with American scientist William Knowles and Japanese scientist Ryoji Noyori for his pioneering contributions to the field of asymmetric catalytic oxidation. In 2022, Carl Barry Sharpless won the second Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his outstanding contributions to the field of click chemistry.
Sharpless said, "If you look at this periodic table from the perspective of element energy, there will be many amazing discoveries." Dong Jiajia, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University's Institute of Translational Medicine, is Sharpless's favorite student in China. According to Sharpless, Dong Jiajia and colleagues discovered more than 6,000 compounds, which turned on the hexavalent sulfur-fluorine exchange reaction (SuFEx), the second near-perfect click chemistry reaction discovered in their lab. The hexavalent sulfur-fluorine exchange reaction unexpectedly opened up a whole world of molecules linked through sulfates, laying the foundation for the second generation of click chemistry.
Four near-perfect click reactions have been discovered so far, Sharpless said, and chemists will build new frontiers in chemical space bottom-up through precise and predictable synthesis.
