Mechanochemistry: How an ancient alchemy technique is transforming modern chemistry

Imagine yourself in a chemistry lab. You are probably picturing a scene featuring a whole load of liquids – fluids bubbling in round-bottomed flasks, solutions swirling in test tubes, droplets running down condensers. It is a cliché, but one that accurately describes what these spaces have looked like for centuries the world over.

There isn’t much frothing or bubbling going on in Tomislav Friščić’s lab, though. That’s because he and his team at the University of Birmingham, UK, are trying to do away with liquid chemistry. The tools of their trade are powerful machines like the ball mill, a grinder full of metal spheres that resembles a mini cement mixer. It may seem brutal, but this hardball approach could shake up the way chemists work, freeing them from the “mental prison”, as Friščić puts it, of having to dissolve everything.

Chemistry creates many of the wonders of modern life, from the medicines that heal us to the screens with which we communicate. When researchers want to make these things from scratch, they often start by assuming they must dissolve their materials. But mechanochemistry, the burgeoning field Friščić is fascinated by, shows this isn’t always necessary. “Mechanochemistry gives you the intellectual freedom to think: ‘Let me just try this reaction by grinding it’,” says Friščić. “And, in many cases, it works.”