We were very pleased to learn today that the the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 was awarded to Benjamin List (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) and David W.C. MacMillan (Princeton University, USA) “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”!
The List group is world-famous for developing superacidic organocatalysts, enabling a very wide range of challenging transformations. We are happy that there is also a tiny contribution from our group to prof. List’s research: the acidities (expressed as pKa values in acetonitrile of 1,2-dichloroethane) of some of their acid catalysts (1,1,3,3-Tetratriflylpropene and some chiral superacidic imides) have been measured in our lab. Recently we were happy to host people from the List group in our lab and they learned how to carry out pKa measurements in nonaqueous solutions. The collaboration will continue.
Big congratulations to prof. List and to prof. MacMillan!
(Photo: The Nobel Prize committee)