Robots explore chemistry’s dark spaces
Thousands of nanoscale experiments create map of reactions that don’t work
While most synthesis is aimed at making a reaction work, a team at pharma giant Merck & Co has been exploring chemical dark spaces – reactions that don’t work. Relying on robotics for reagent handling and analysis, the team ran over 3000 miniaturised carbon–nitrogen couplings to figure out which compound types give the reaction trouble. This could help both chemists and artificial intelligence programs to better predict reaction outcomes in the future.