{"id":239669,"date":"2026-06-26T06:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/tiny-water-droplets-transmutate-aniline-into-pyridine-in-ambient-and-catalyst-free-conditions"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:21:20","slug":"tiny-water-droplets-transmutate-aniline-into-pyridine-in-ambient-and-catalyst-free-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/tiny-water-droplets-transmutate-aniline-into-pyridine-in-ambient-and-catalyst-free-conditions","title":{"rendered":"Tiny water droplets transmutate aniline into pyridine in ambient and catalyst-free conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/tiny-water-droplets-transmutate-aniline-into-pyridine-in-ambient-and-catalyst-free-conditions2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aniline can now be transformed into pyridine without adding any catalysts, oxidants or toxic reagents. In <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/jacs.6c06409\" target=\"_blank\">a recent study<\/a> published in the <i>Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/i>, researchers achieved skeletal editing, involving the reorganization of the carbon-nitrogen bonds within an aromatic ring, by turning an aqueous solution of aniline into a mist of microdroplets.<\/p>\n<p>During its millisecond-long airborne lifespan, aniline underwent rapid molecular rearrangement, inserting nitrogen into the aromatic ring and forming pyridine, driven by the uniquely active air-water interface in microdroplets. The green, reagent-free reaction converted up to 80% of the starting material into the product under ambient conditions, eliminating the added energy cost often required to carry out such conversion reactions.<\/p>\n<p>By testing droplets of different sizes, charges and acidity levels, researchers found that the reaction is boosted at the droplet\u2019s interface, a zone that is rich in protons and highly polarized. The smaller the droplet, the larger its reactive surface area relative to its volume, and the better the reaction outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aniline can now be transformed into pyridine without adding any catalysts, oxidants or toxic reagents. In a recent study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers achieved skeletal editing, involving the reorganization of the carbon-nitrogen bonds within an aromatic ring, by turning an aqueous solution of aniline into a mist of microdroplets. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239669","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=239669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}