Two ICIQ papers are within the most downloaded papers in the last 12 months of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS)*.

Specially significant is the case of Rubén Martín’s research group paper, which was published last January and it already ranks as one of the most downloaded papers in the last 12 months of the journal.

Martín et al. paper deals with the first catalytic carboxylation of primary, secondary, and tertiary benzyl halides using CO₂ as the source of carbon. They describe a novel, efficient and user-friendly catalytic protocol that uses commercially available and cheap starting materials, avoiding the use of sensitive metal complexes. The method proceeds under mild reaction conditions with excellent chemoselectivity.

The paper by Vladimir Grushin‘s team was already highlighted by Synfacts last year for being one of the most significant recent developments and future trends in synthetic chemistry.

The paper explains the first nucleophilic trifluoromoethylation of α-haloketones, using low-cost chemicals. Through this synthetic method, they afford the corresponding trifluoromethylated products with up to 99% yield, at room temperature and under short reaction times.