{"id":234547,"date":"2026-04-03T04:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/cyclic-catalysts-use-sunlight-and-air-to-regenerate-during-pharma-ingredient-synthesis"},"modified":"2026-04-03T04:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:28:24","slug":"cyclic-catalysts-use-sunlight-and-air-to-regenerate-during-pharma-ingredient-synthesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/cyclic-catalysts-use-sunlight-and-air-to-regenerate-during-pharma-ingredient-synthesis","title":{"rendered":"Cyclic catalysts use sunlight and air to regenerate during pharma ingredient synthesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cyclic-catalysts-use-sunlight-and-air-to-regenerate-during-pharma-ingredient-synthesis2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In chemical processes for producing pharmaceuticals, catalysts are a core technology that determines production speed and cost. However, until now, there has been a trade-off between \u201cprecise but disposable catalysts\u201d and \u201creusable catalysts.\u201d A KAIST research team has developed an eco-friendly catalytic technology that combines these two types, operating solely with light and air. This opens a pathway to producing pharmaceutical ingredients more cheaply and cleanly, with expected reductions in carbon emissions and environmental pollution. The study is <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/jacs.5c20824\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.<\/p>\n<p>A research team led by Professor Sang Woo Han of the Department of Chemistry has succeeded in combining two different types of catalysts into one system. One is a <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-06-team-hot-photocatalyst.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">silver (Ag)-based catalyst<\/a> that operates in a solid state, and the other is an organic photocatalyst, DDQ (a substance that triggers chemical reactions upon absorbing light), which operates in solution.<\/p>\n<p>By enabling these two catalysts to function together, the team made it possible to carry out previously difficult reactions more efficiently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In chemical processes for producing pharmaceuticals, catalysts are a core technology that determines production speed and cost. However, until now, there has been a trade-off between \u201cprecise but disposable catalysts\u201d and \u201creusable catalysts.\u201d A KAIST research team has developed an eco-friendly catalytic technology that combines these two types, operating solely with light and air. This [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}