Controlling catalytic reactions

US scientists have developed a practical solvent-free process for conducting efficient catalytic carbon-carbon bond forming reactions using diazo compounds.

Chiral catalysts are used in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries for the production of single enantiomer products for the discovery and isolation of new drugs. The turnover number (TON) of a catalyst indicates how much of a substrate it can convert before being inactivated. Therefore, achieving high TON is highly desirable and allows smaller amounts of catalyst to be used, making the process cheaper as most commonly used metal complexes (Pd, Pt, Rh) are expensive.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2010/07/controlling_catalytic_reactions.asp