Status: 06.10.2021 12:40 p.m.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to the German Benjamin List and the Scottish-born US researcher David WC MacMillan. Both have developed methods of accelerating chemical reactions.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2021 goes to the German Benjamin List and the US researcher David WC MacMillan for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. This was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The chemistry prize winners of the year had developed a new and ingenious tool for building molecules – organocatalysis, according to the reasoning.
Christian Blenker, ARD Stockholm, on the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Benjamin List and David MacMillan
daily news 12:00 p.m., 6.10.2021
Organocatalysis has developed at an astonishing speed. With the help of these reactions, researchers could now manufacture many things more efficiently, from new drugs to molecules that can capture light in solar cells.
From “stupid idea” to the Nobel Prize
List is director of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, while MacMillan conducts research at Princeton University in the USA. List, who was connected to the event by phone from the family vacation from Amsterdam, said that he had absolutely not expected this “huge surprise”. It was not originally clear to him that MacMillan was working on the same subject as him. Until his presumption proved to be workable, he believed it was possible that it was a “stupid idea”. Then he felt that it could be something big.
New class of catalysts
Catalysts enable or accelerate chemical reactions without being consumed themselves. Most contain metals that are either rare and expensive or potentially toxic. Others are complex organic compounds such as the body’s own enzymes that enable digestion, for example. The research by List and MacMillan now made it possible to use relatively simply structured organic substances without metals as catalysts.
A catalyst based on the amino acid proline, which List helped to develop, is already being used to produce the antibiotic ethambutol. They are also used to synthesize an HIV drug. In the meantime, organocatalysis has become established worldwide as the third general class of catalytic principles. List hopes to be able to develop highly efficient organic catalysts that are far superior to the metallic and enzyme versions.
The most prestigious award for chemists this year is endowed with a total of ten million crowns (around 980,000 euros). The award ceremony traditionally takes place on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the founder Alfred Nobel.