Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and Fabio di Lena from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, used electrospray ionisation mass spectroscopy to screen catalysts for atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). 

'Conventional procedures for evaluating ATRP catalysts performance are laborious, and usually require relatively large amount of materials' explains Matyjaszewski. This new method should speed up the process, and help scientists develop new metal complexes for ATRP more efficiently. 

Matyjaszewski and di Lena's method does not require prior polymerization experiments, or reaction workup, and only requires a few milligrams of the compounds. Moreover, each metal complex can be easily picked out from the mixture and subjected to further reactions individually. 'We believe that this novel methodology could significantly contribute to the development of a new generation of ATRP catalysts of wide academic and industrial interest and apply to a larger range of monomers' says Matyjaszewski. 

The next step for the scientists will be to extend the approach to the simultaneous screening of libraries of ligands with various transition metals having accessible one-electron redox couples. 

Rachel Cooper