Custom-Designed Polymers Open New Path to Electrochemical Separations for Sustainable Drug Manufacturing

Custom-designed polymers open new path to electrochemical separations for sustainable drug manufacturing

Enantiomers, or molecule pairs that are mirror images of each other, make up more than half of FDA-approved drugs in use today, including those used in treatments for cancer, neurologic diseases and arthritis. Separating enantiomers is critical for drug manufacturing because the effect of each molecule in the pair can be very different—for example, one enantiomer might cure a headache while its mirror-image could cause a headache.

Custom-Designed Polymers Open New Path to Electrochemical Separations for Sustainable Drug Manufacturing

Mirror-image molecule pairs called enantiomers make up more than half of FDA-approved drugs in use today. Separating enantiomers is critical for drug manufacturing but enantiomers are notoriously difficult to separate. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report on their efforts to find an efficient, sustainable way to perform these critical separations.