Phosgene is a very useful molecule, but it's often not the best for the situation, and it has the unfortunate side effect of being a gas. A war gas.
Carbonyl diimidazole isn't exactly a pussycat; by nature, it has to be very reactive. At least it's not a gas. It's a useful phosgene alternative that acts very much like an acyl chloride. It finds some use in peptide synthesis, along with various other spheres of organic chemistry.
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On the afternoon of Saturday, January 23, 2010, Carl "Danny" Fish, a 32-year employee of the DuPont plant in Belle, West Virginia was performing a routine operation when a hose carrying phosgene (a chemical so toxic it was use
Carl "Dan" Fish worked at Dupont's Belle plant for 32 years until last Saturday. That's the day he was sprayed in the face by phosgene gas. Sunday he was dead:
So this morning when I walked into the corridors bisecting our labs from our offices, I was greeted by yellow "caution wet floor" signs and my staff scurrying about like industrious, yet annoyed, ants. Apparently, a major leak developed during the night in a lab on the second floor.
In the news the last couple days: chloropicrin:
Is this structure correct? It's difficult to generate imidazole C-anion...
Fixed, thanks.
Its always worth trying this reagent if you have a difficult amide coupling; I know of two projects that were saved by CDI.