Ana & Luna featured in "Women in Green Chemistry" Special Collection

Hey! It's Ana and Luna here ;-)

For International Women’s Day 2026, Green Chemistry is spotlighting research by women who are paving the way in green and sustainable chemistry. We’re super excited that our recent work is part of this awesome collection!

In our study, we explored a simple idea: can common aldehydes act as light-controlled CO surrogates for carbonylation reactions? Spoiler: yes, they can! Find the working principle in our previous post From Deadly to Scented: Aldehydes as CO surrogates!

Carbonylation chemistry is super important for creating amides, esters, and ketones, which are key ingredients in drugs and agrochemicals. The catch is, it typically depends on carbon monoxide gas, which is pretty toxic and tricky to deal with, especially in academic settings. Building on our earlier research with photocatalytic HAT processes (The HAcTive Strategy), we figured out that aldehydes can actually release CO through decarbonylation. Using photocatalysis, TBADT photocatalyst in our case, this CO generation becomes controllable with light-essentially like turning a switch on and off!

Big shoutout to our colleagues and collaborators, especially Valerio Morlacci (we couldn't have done it without you) and our mentor Luca Capaldo, who always encouraged us to be our best selves.

Happy Women's Day :-)

Ana & Luna

Link to the special collection.

Link to publication.

Luna, Luca, Ana and Vale (in the back) submitting the paper, at 2 a.m., after the pub.