It has been suggested that pgms could be used by scientists to create more efficient and more powerful enzymes.

A new antibody-rhodium catalyst has been developed which could help to revolutionise catalysis by creating a much more selective catalyst.

Akira Harada, together with colleagues at Osaka University in Japan, developed the catalyst which provides selectivity on the same level as natural enzymes, but with the reactivity that rhodium and other pgms are used for.

In a report by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the antibody-rhodium complex was found to be highly selective in reducing a carbon-carbon double bond in a series of amino acid precursors, only reacting with one of the precursors. It also formed only one of two possible mirror images of the amino acid product.

Experts have suggested that this could be an important breakthrough in catalysis.

Neil Thomas, an expert in catalytic antibodies at the University of Nottingham, told the RSC that the study "provides one of the best examples of combining an organometallic catalyst with a bespoke protein cavity to create an asymmetric catalyst".

Ÿ Adfero Ltd