New Iridium Launches New Class Of Photocatalysts For Birch Reduction

Colorado-based company’s photocatalysis platform enables faster and lower cost chemical synthesis and now includes new light-based organic photocatalysts for the Birch reduction

Boulder, CO (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - New Iridium, a company developing commercialized photocatalysis technologies to streamline chemical and pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, has launched a new class of photocatalysts that enable a superior light-based approach to the Birch reduction, a powerful and widely used reaction in chemical synthesis.

Use of these organic, light-based photocatalysts will accelerate production of chemical and pharmaceutical end products and reduce manufacturing costs. These patent-pending photocatalysts were developed in the laboratory of Garret Miyake, associate professor of chemistry, Colorado State University, and licensed exclusively to New Iridium.

The Birch reduction is a powerful synthetic method for creating complex chemical products. Although it is an important synthetic tool, in a traditional Birch reduction the use of dangerous reagents under cryogenic conditions has discouraged large scale process implementation. New Iridium has commercialized a newly developed class of organic photocatalysts which allow light-based Birch reductions at ambient temperatures and benchtop conditions, avoiding the challenges of the conventional process. This unique reactivity is enabled by harnessing the energy from two photons to induce a single, high-energy chemical transformation.

“The Birch reduction is generally applied in natural products and pharmaceutical synthesis with synthetic steroid hormones as notable examples”, said Professor Miyake. “With the discovery of this class of photocatalysts, we have advanced this synthetic method by enabling Birch reduction under mild conditions where photon energy is used to drive the reaction process.”

“Application of Birch reduction in industrial processes is severely limited by dangerous reaction conditions”, said Chern-Hooi Lim, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of New Iridium. “Our light-based approach enables mild and safe processes. It will encourage greater adoption of Birch reduction at an industrial scale and truly unlock the potential of this technology.”

The research upon which these products was based is published as, “Organocatalyzed Birch Reduction Driven by Visible Light”, Miyake, et al, published July 14, 2020, in Journal of the American Chemical Society. The New Iridium Birch Reduction Photocatalysts are available through MilliporeSigma, a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leader in life sciences.

About New Iridium
Conventional chemical processes are energy intensive and require multiple lengthy and sequential manufacturing steps. Boulder, Colo.-based New Iridium has commercialized a photocatalysis platform which delivers unprecedented reductions in both manufacturing costs and time to market for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The patent pending technology reacts to light instead of heat, improving efficiencies in both product development and manufacturing processes. Developed in cooperation with the University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University and licensed exclusively by New Iridium, this novel approach is applicable to a wide range of chemical and pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing applications. For more information, visit www.NewIridium.com.

© 2020 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All Rights Reserved.