Light of transformation: Research explores the inner workings of chemical change

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — To the untrained eye, catalysis seems almost like alchemy: By introducing an agent — the catalyst — chemical bonds are reshaped, turning a substance into something else.

Catalysis is used in a wide range of applications, from industry to the manufacture of pharmaceutical drugs. But exactly how it works remains little understood.

That’s the mystery that Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jennifer Hirschi is working to unravel. She recently received a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA R35) for $1.93 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study the mechanisms involved in catalytic reactions.

“Specifically, I care about how the bonds are being formed and broken in chemical transformations. If we can really understand that, then we can learn how to develop new transformations and catalysts and vary chemical selectivity,” she said.

Hirschi joined the University in 2020 through SUNY’s Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth (PRODiG) program, which aims to hire 1,000 professors from underrepresented groups by 2030. These historically underrepresented groups include members of the Black, Latine, Native American, Alaskan Native and Pacific Island communities in all fields, as well as women of all races and ethnicities in science, technology, engineering and math.

This past year, Hirschi has published two academic papers on biocatalysis with Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold, based at the California Institute of Technology. The MIRA R35 grant will allow her to continue her research into biocatalysis and photoredox catalysis, aided by postdoctoral research associate Sharath Chandra-Mallojjala.

Chemistry and sustainability

A specialist in kinetic isotope effects, Hirschi’s research brings together both the experimental and computational ends of chemistry to understand how the catalytic process works at an atomic level and what can improve it.

“In the pharmaceutical industry, they’re able to take common feedstock chemicals and turn them into high-value pharmaceuticals,” she explained.

Research in the Hirschi lab looks specifically at two types of catalysis: photoredox catalysis, in which chemical changes are spurred by the use of blue light, and biocatalysis, which is prompted by engineered enzymes. Blue light, as it turns out, emits just the right amount of energy to activate chemical bonds.

Both are more sustainable alternatives to traditional catalysts, which often consist of heavy metals such as palladium and platinum. There’s only one problem: No one really understands the mechanism by which these novel catalysts work.

In fact, the mechanisms behind basic organic chemistry are still being actively researched. When Hirschi began working on the mechanisms behind photoredox catalysis and biocatalysis two years ago, it was largely an open field.

Understanding the mechanism behind these reactions may allow future researchers to better shape the chemistry, with applications in drug development and industry. Since they rely on light and enzymes, these new forms of catalysis may also benefit the environment, an area of increasing concern in the chemistry community.

“The main processes in industry involve catalysis with heavy metals, but heavy metals will run out someday; we don’t have an infinite amount of palladium,” Hirschi explained. “We have to figure out how to do this in other ways.”