Talk:Click chemistry

Linus Pauling?

I looked at the PNAS paper referenced in the first line of the page as of today: "Click chemistry is a chemical philosophy first recognized by Linus Pauling in 1933." I did not find any evidence to support Pauling's involvement in developing the reaction philosophy now known as click chemistry; the referenced paper appears to address molecular structures of methyl azide and carbon suboxide. The textual reference to Pauling and PNAS citation were deleted by 108.56.185.171 earlier today on the same grounds, but have been reinstated with no explanation by 159.14.241.230. I have removed the problematic edit until firmer evidence is added. Please do not engage in edit warring.

If anyone is aware of Pauling's actual involvement in the development of click chemistry, please add that information.Kmva (talk) 21:04, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Sulfur(VI) Fluoride Exchange

A new kind of click reaction has been discovered between thionyl tetrafluoride and primary amines. SOF4 is not currently commercially available and there are no applications as of yet but is it worth mentioning in this page? I've already made a little section in the thionyl tetrafluoride page. Gsurfer04 (talk) 12:22, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

References

External links modified

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Layman explanation

As a non-chemist, I find the current click chemistry article aimed at far too high a technical level to understand why it is so useful and important that it won the 2022 Nobel Prize; it could use a section popularizing it. Some popular writeups to take inspiration from: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/2022-nobel-prize-chemistry https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2022/10/popular-chemistryprize2022.pdf https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/science/nobel-prize-chemistry-winner.html --Gwern (contribs) 20:07 5 October 2022 (GMT)

In the history section, the sentence "Few major classes of structurally complex organic compounds have more than six C-C bonds (except aryl derivatives)" does not make sense to me as a non-chemist. It's also probably too technical for the history section. The terms must have some specific meanings that aren't obvious to a layperson, because I read that and say it must not be true. The molecule shown at the top of the organic chemistry page appears to have 20 C-C bonds, for example. The rest of that paragraph is too technical as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-73354-0 (talk) 23:09, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

As the most recent heavy editor, Iplead guilty. In my defense, until those recent edits, the article also did not make sense even to chemists (to some extent).

One problem is that the concepts are indeed both quite advanced and quite vaguely defined at the same time. So you are asking a very difficult question, equivalent to jumping into some fairly advanced math article and wanting to simplify it. There is however one highly popular reaction involving organic azides and certain alkynes which can be depicted to show the clicking. But even that requires some decent knowledge of organic chemistry and an understanding of why people want to link things together. --Smokefoot (talk) 01:22, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

I just reread the intro. It would be difficult, at least for me, to pitch this description any more simply. Click chem is an advanced concept. --Smokefoot (talk) 04:16, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Some reviews

The article seems dated and specialized (see preceding comment). Here are some overviews from Chemical Reviews post 2020: >2020

• Ghosal, Krishanu; Bhattacharyya, Swarup Krishna; Mishra, Vivek; Zuilhof, Han (2024). "Click Chemistry for Biofunctional Polymers: From Observing to Steering Cell Behavior". Chemical Reviews. 124 (23): 13216–13300. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.4c00251. PMC 11638903. PMID 39621547.
• Albada, Bauke; Keijzer, Jordi F.; Zuilhof, Han; Van Delft, Floris (2021). "Oxidation-Induced "One-Pot" Click Chemistry". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 7032–7058. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c01180. PMID 33662210.
• Kumar, Gangam Srikanth; Lin, Qing (2021). "Light-Triggered Click Chemistry". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 6991–7031. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00799. PMID 33104332.
• Levandowski, Brian J.; Raines, Ronald T. (2021). "Click Chemistry with Cyclopentadiene". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 6777–6801. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c01055. PMC 8222071. PMID 33651602.
• Agrahari, Anand K.; Bose, Priyanka; Jaiswal, Manoj K.; Rajkhowa, Sanchayita; Singh, Anoop S.; Hotha, Srinivas; Mishra, Nidhi; Tiwari, Vinod K. (2021). "Cu(I)-Catalyzed Click Chemistry in Glycoscience and Their Diverse Applications". Chemical Reviews. 121 (13): 7638–7956. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00920. PMID 34165284.
• Porte, Karine; Riomet, Margaux; Figliola, Carlotta; Audisio, Davide; Taran, Frédéric (2021). "Click and Bio-Orthogonal Reactions with Mesoionic Compounds". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 6718–6743. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00806. PMID 33238101.
• Fantoni, Nicolò Zuin; El-Sagheer, Afaf H.; Brown, Tom (2021). "A Hitchhiker's Guide to Click-Chemistry with Nucleic Acids". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 7122–7154. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00928. PMID 33443411.
• Taiariol, Ludivine; Chaix, Carole; Farre, Carole; Moreau, Emmanuel (2022). "Click and Bioorthogonal Chemistry: The Future of Active Targeting of Nanoparticles for Nanomedicines?". Chemical Reviews. 122: 340–384. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00484. PMID 34705429.
• Suazo, Kiall F.; Park, Keun-Young; Distefano, Mark D. (2021). "A Not-So-Ancient Grease History: Click Chemistry and Protein Lipid Modifications". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 7178–7248. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c01108. PMC 8820976. PMID 33821625.
• Devaraj, Neal K.; Finn, M. G. (2021). "Introduction: Click Chemistry". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 6697–6698. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00469. PMID 34157843.
• Worch, Joshua C.; Stubbs, Connor J.; Price, Matthew J.; Dove, Andrew P. (2021). "Click Nucleophilic Conjugate Additions to Activated Alkynes: Exploring Thiol-yne, Amino-yne, and Hydroxyl-yne Reactions from (Bio)Organic to Polymer Chemistry". Chemical Reviews. 121 (12): 6744–6776. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c01076. PMC 8227514. PMID 33764739.

--Smokefoot (talk) 14:15, 2 November 2025 (UTC)