Frontier Specialty Chemicals offers high quality reagents used in research for numerous industries. Many of the products offered by Frontier Specialty Chemicals have been used in the development of novel therapeutics, organic synthesis transformations, sensors, and unique material science applications. To help assist researchers in a variety of chemical industries, Frontier Specialty Chemicals has created these short summaries of how some our products are used within these fields.
Organoboron Compounds
Frontier Specialty Chemicals has extensive synthesis experience in the field of organoborons and derivatives. Frontier offered the first commercially available bis(pinacol)diboron to the synthetic community and offers a large selection of chemically diverse boronic acids, boronate esters and potassium trifluoroborate products for transition-metal based chemical reactions.
Boronic acids, along with their corresponding boronate esters and potassium trifluoroborate salts, have long been used in synthetic organic chemistry to construct C-C and C-heteroatom bonds as well as C-H functionalization via metal-mediated cross coupling reactions. Thus, boronic acids are very valuable to synthetic chemists as building blocks and key intermediates in the synthesis of more complex molecules and that also play important roles in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology.
Heme biosynthesis and heme oxygenase pathways
The heme biosynthesis pathway is one of the most essential biosynthesis pathways in nature. This process is used by many organisms to build the molecule essential for oxygen transport. The heme oxygenase is a key pathway used for catabolism of heme. Frontier Specialty Chemicals offers many of the intermediates along these pathways as well as many of the corresponding elimination products observed in many species.
Catalysis
Many examples of using porphyrin materials as catalysts have been reported. Porphyrins and metalloporphyrins have been reported to catalyze numerous transformations such as oxidations, epoxidations, fluorinations, reductions and borylations. Many researchers have contributed to the many examples of using porphyrins to perform useful synthetic transformations. Frontier Specialty Chemicals has compiled a list of selected examples of porphyrins as catalysts for synthesis.
Porphyrin Building Blocks
Numerous methods are used to synthesize a variety of porphyrins. Porphyrin building blocks include reagents such as functionalized pyrroles, substituted dipyrromethanes and aldehydes used in the synthesis of porphyrins. Frontier Specialty Chemicals offers several materials that can be used in the synthesis of unique porphyrins.
Photodynamic therapy
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) combines photosensitizer molecules and light to generate localized singlet oxygen to induce apoptotic cell death. PDT has been shown to be very effective in treatment of cancerous and pre-cancerous lesions. This powerful method of treating cancer has been explored over the past several decades. Due to the unique optical characteristics of porphyrins and chlorins, many of the known PDT sensitizing agents in the literature are from this class of molecules. Frontier Specialty Chemicals assists researchers in this field by providing many examples of PDT sensitizing agents as well as assisting in the development of new PDT sensitizing agents for this field of study.
Sensors
Chemical and biological sensors are becoming more and more ubiquitous. They are utilized not only in science and academics, but in medicine, manufacturing, and numerous other industries. Most people interact with chemical or biological sensors as they go about their lives. Sensors help us to monitor, analyze and understand scientific processes, detect and abate dangerous toxins and chemicals, assist in keeping food and water safe, and play an important role in medicine and public health. There is a myriad of sensors that utilize a vast variety of chemical receptors. At Frontier Specialty Chemicals, we specialize in the chemistry of boronic acids and porphyrins materials that are used in such sensors.
Metal-Organic Frameworks
Metal-Organic frameworks (MOFs) are 2- or 3-dimensional structures composed of metal ions/secondary building units and organic linkers. The structures of the MOFs are controlled by the size of the organic linkers and the coordination geometries of metal ions. Frontier Specialty Chemicals offers a number of porphyrin based organic linkers that are used in the manufacture of metal-organic frameworks.
Standards for Detection of Olive Oil Adulterants
Olive oil is used ubiquitously in the preparation of food. Research has shown that 62-90% of a consumer’s assessment of olive oil is due to the color of the oil. Many individuals will purchase olive oil with a green tint over comparable products lacking similar color. Unfortunately, some producers of olive oil have found it very profitable to adulterate their oils with green colorings to increase the price that they are able to sell their products for. Frontier Specialty Chemicals offers a selection of purified components of the green food colorings that can be used to aid detection of adulterated olive oils.