Mapping the dark space of chemical reactions with extended nanomole synthesis and MALDI-TOF MS

A rapid screen for complex reactants Chemists engaged in reaction discovery tend to report outcomes involving a few, relatively simple reactants. It remains a major challenge to fine-tune reported conditions when the reactants become more structurally complex, as often happens in pharmaceutical research. Lin et al. developed a protocol for rapidly screening different catalytic conditions for C–N coupling across a wide range of complex substrates. The product detection scheme relies on mass spectrometry of nanomole-scale reaction mixtures without any need for intervening chromatography. Science , this issue p. eaar6236