One-pot cooking-inspired chemistry achieves optimal reaction conditions

For a long time, people have dreamed of developing materials that would allow them to overcome the difficulties of everyday life. The ideal would be to take advantage of a combination of the characteristics of different materials, taking advantage of their advantages while avoiding their disadvantages. In chemistry, this concept has been applied to hybrid materials, especially with the combination of organic and inorganic compounds.

Organic materials are known for their functional diversity, while inorganic materials offer superior stability. However, the fusion of organic and inorganic substances poses significant challenges due to the different reaction conditions required for their formation. The research team led by Professor Miriam Unterlass of the University of Konstanz uses a method that balances these contrasting conditions, allowing the reactions to occur simultaneously and synergistically in a single reaction vessel. Chemists have called this method “one-pot synthesis.”

The researchers refined this method to achieve optimal reaction conditions, comparable to those of a perfect one-pot meal, where each ingredient must be prepared at exactly the right temperature. The key to their success lies in the precise control of pressure, temperature and time, as well as the proper selection of available ingredients, or as chemists call them, raw materials.

“The beauty of our approach is its simplicity,” says Frank Sailer, who played a key role in the single-pot synthesis while pursuing his PhD. “We avoid toxic catalysts and solvents, using only isopropanol, a common disinfectant, as a solvent. This makes our process both sustainable and environmentally friendly.”

The materials obtained, called pigment@TiO₂ Organic pigments are composed of special coloring molecules, called organic pigments, and layered titanium dioxide. Are the results of one-pot synthesis really the best of both worlds? In fact, they are much more than that.

Sailer explains: “We don’t just want to obtain a sum of all the properties of the two individual components, but new synergistic properties that neither of the individual materials exhibits.” These synergistic properties make pigment@TiO₂ materials particularly suitable for battery applications.

Why hasn’t this approach been used to make such hybrid materials in the past? “That’s because the idea is very unusual. Organic components are not usually synthesized under the reaction conditions used,” Sailer says.

Unterlass’ research team has set itself the goal of finding such materials and reaction pathways. They are investigating how to optimize chemical synthesis processes to obtain more efficient and more sustainable advanced materials. “Our goal is to produce better materials faster and in a more environmentally friendly way,” says Unterlass.

The detailed results of the Unterlass research team are published in the journal Small structures.