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A headline in the Jan. 30 issue of C&EN (page 36) announces, "Microwaves do enhance reaction rates." This is not news. I know it is difficult to keep up with the literature, but this letter has more to do with the bias of the chemistry community away from inorganic chemistry. Since about 1990, in more than 100 papers (www.mri.psu.edu/centers/mpec/), Penn State MRI has reported on the enhancement of kinetics of inorganic synthesis (of the most significant industrial materials such as BaTiO3 and halophosphates), often by two orders of magnitude.
Equally astonishing have been the dozens of papers on even sintering of metals at extraordinary speeds. But the most extraordinary recent reports are that the most significant high-tech inorganic phases (for example, silicon wafers, ferrites, and TiO2) can be rendered totally amorphous in the solid state in a few seconds in a single-mode microwave field.
None of this was judged to be worthy of mention in C&EN while the Japanese government launched a project with its major companies to save the country 80−90% of the energy cost (all due to the rapid kinetics) in the energy-guzzling materials processing industry.
I believe C&EN does not serve these major inorganic industries well by its selective neglect.
Rustum Roy
University Park, Pa.
Jan. 23, page 4 (Chemical Safety). A violent explosion occurred during an attempt to recrystallize 2 g of 3-iodyltoluene (3-O2IC6H4CH3), not 3-iodotoluene, from boiling water with vigorous stirring.
April 3, page 19. Nilotinib is being developed by Novartis, not SGX Pharmaceuticals. The compound is in Phase III clinical tests of its use in treating drug-resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia. The collaboration between Novartis and SGX gives Novartis access to SGX's research and preclinical compounds in this area.
April 24, page 64. The Fluorinex process requires the application of 30 milliamperes of current, not 30 amp.
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