MSU Technologies

Convenient Synthesis of Carbazoles without Precious Metal Catalysts

Executive Summary

Carbazoles are structures that have two benzene rings on either side of a five-membered ring that contains nitrogen. They are used in a wide variety of photochemical and electrochemical applications including pharma, biomedical, OLEDs, pigments and batteries. However, the current synthesis of carbazoles requires harsh temperatures, complicated ring building reactions and precious metal catalysts. MSU researchers have recently discovered a new method of synthesizing carbazoles that requires mild reaction temperatures and no precious metals leading to a straight forward, cost effective process.

Description of the Technology

This technology utilizes hypervalent iodine and diphenyl amines to synthesize carbazole compounds. No precious metals such as palladium are required leading to simpler purification of the resulting product. This technology has currently been demonstrated at laboratory scale.

Benefits

Simple chemistry for carbazole synthesis
Does not require precious metals
Variety of carbazoles can be made by this process with various substituted groups on the phenyl rings

Applications