A student of the Faculty of Natural Sciences received a first-degree diploma and the “Future of Russian Chemistry” medal at the Mendeleev Competition

From April 26 to 29, the on-site stage of the XXXVI All-Russian Mendeleev Contest — Mendeleev School-Conference — started at Tomsk Polytechnic University. 100 talented chemistry students from all over the country passed the selection and came to Tomsk to participate in the large-scale scientific event. TPU was represented at the school-conference by 13 studentsFaculty of Natural Sciences (FEN).

The competition was held in two stages. The first was remote, during which it was necessary to provide brief theses of one’s research and a scientific report, in which the relevance of the work is described in more detail, a literature review is given, the experimental part and discussion of the obtained results are presented. After the competition experts familiarized themselves with the submitted materials, the organizers sent a list of participants who passed to the second, in-person stage, as well as reviews of the work, where its strengths and weaknesses were detailed.

At the on-site phase, students were required to present their work in the form of a poster report, describe the features of their research, and answer questions from authoritative experts. From all the participants in the on-site phase, 36 people were selected for oral presentations, of whom six were FEN NSU students:Ulyana Makogon, Zoya Rudzis, Regina Udartseva, Darya Khramtsova, Ivan TsaiиAleksei Zazulya.

Alexey Zazulya has long known about the Mendeleev competition, and this year he was invited to participate by the head of the laboratory of rare platinum metals at the INKh SO RAN, Sergey Korneeva. In his presentation, he spoke about the creation of a new safe and effective method for synthesizing promising anti-cancer drugs based on platinum. Conventional platinum drugs, for example, cisplatin, help fight cancer but are highly toxic and harm not only tumors but also the entire body. A more modern variant is platinum(IV) drugs, which are activated by light and act more precisely.It was previously difficult to study because a dangerous method was used for synthesis, involving the formation of an explosive substance — silver azide. Because of this, it was impossible to obtain preparations in large quantities for full-fledged studies.

—We proposed a new synthesis route that excludes the use of silver salts and the formation of explosive compounds. Instead of traditional platinum chloro complexes, we use nitrate complexes, under the action of light we synthesize precursors containing pyridines, and directly replace pyridines with an azide anion, bypassing intermediate stages which were previously a source of hazard. We studied the kinetics of this interaction in detail. Using IEX spectrum and DFT calculations, we literally “looked” at how the ligand replacement proceeds and found out why the reaction proceeds exactly in this way.We also obtained one of the final connection prodrugs, demonstrating that our method works from start to finish, — told about the studyAlexey.

Experts have assessed Alexey’s work as worthy of a first-class diploma and an additional award — the medal “Future of Russian Science”.

—The competition left incredible impressions. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who was part of this wonderful event for their openness, enthusiasm, and cohesion. Everyone worked as a single mechanism, as if they had been working together for many years before this. For me, the Mendeleev competition became a place where I found new acquaintances and saw what a diverse and interesting chemistry we all engage in together.— shared impressionsAleksey.