A Flourine Fan
By Eva Emerson
In the Sept. 1 issue of the Chemical & Engineering News, the
American Chemical Society (ACS) announced the selection of USC College
chemist G.K. Surya Prakash as the winner of the prestigious 2004
American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Fluorine
Chemistry. The award will be presented to him at the 227th ACS meeting
to be held in Anaheim in March 2004.
Fluorine's tendency to overreact, or "catch fire," and its
usefulness—it is a key component in drugs used to treat malaria, HIV
and cancer—has made finding a way to tame it a goal of chemists for
more than 40 years, notes Prakash, holder of the George A. and Judith
A. Olah Nobel Leaureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry and scientific
co-director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Institute at USC.
Prakash has made major contributions to the field of fluorine research.
Despite the difficulties of working with the very reactive element, the
unusual properties of fluorinated molecules have made them valuable in
biology, materials science and the pharmaceutical industry.
The award follows a flurry of fluorinated activity: Earlier this year,
Prakash co-chaired the nation's largest meeting on fluorine chemistry
in Florida. There, his group presented results from his latest work,
describing his team's development of a new chemical method for
introducing trifluoromethyl (CF3) groups into molecules.
The team’s method “tames” the trifluoromethylation process, Prakash
says. The new method is easier to use than existing methods and
provides a more stable source of the trifluoromethyl groups for
applications in the lab and industry. The finding also has
environmental value: previously, ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) had been the most common source for the trifluoromethyl groups.
Prakash's "environmentally friendly" trifluoromethyl reagent is made
from non-ozone depleting trifluoromethane, which itself is an
inexpensive, industrial chemical by-product that has had few uses.
"Fluorine is a small atom with a big ego, because it does so many valuable things," Prakash says.
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