60-Second Safety Science! 🧪 Electrification of everything is well under way. People carry so many things they don't even realize are powered by lithium-ion batteries. A technology that deservedly earned 3 scientists the Nobel Prize — but that is NOT without risk... www.youtube.com/watch?v=XotV...

Thermal Runaway Risks

YouTube video by UL Research Institutes

youtube.com

📢 Issue #7/26 of ChemistryEurope: out now! https://bit.ly/4f8BVnt Read about the newest research of @shuberlab.bsky.social, H. Takikawa, @nunobasilio.bsky.social & @mcindoe.bsky.social among others. Congratulations to Yasuda et al. on a great cover!

Congratulations to Julian Wolf on being awarded the Dr. Klaus Marquardt prize for his PhD thesis, a university-wide recognition! (Picture by Michael Schwettmann, see news.rub.de/kultur-und-f...)

Redox activation of halogen-bonding catalysts for organic synthesis: thanks to the Paris groups for this very nice cooperation! doi.org/10.1039/d6sc...

New paper on "Fukunaga dimers" in cooperation with groups from Berlin: chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Open‐Shell Tetra(dicyanomethylene)‐bicyclopropenylidene CN8CP2 Radical Anion as Strong Electron Acceptor

A practical route to the novel CN8CP2 framework enables access to its dianion, radical anion, and electrochemically generated neutral species. Its exceptionally low LUMO levels establish the CN8CP2 f...

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Finally out (after a long time on ChemXRiv...): our first swing at self-complementary halogen bonding building blocks. chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Thanks to Mate Erdelyi and coworkers for helping out with NMR expertise!

Self‐Complementary Dimers Based on Zwitterionic Halogen Bond Donors

In this study we present the first isolated zwitterionic homodimers based on halogen bonding (XB). After optimization of the structures by changing the Lewis base (LB) and the backbone, their dimeriz...

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

We are hiring again, please share, thanks! PS: Applications (including a short research proposal) only via our university's online system please.

Ich wollte das erst später posten. Doch die Meldungen der letzten Tage zu nahen Kippvorgängen im Erdsystem nebst globaler Abkehr von einst etablierter Rationalität gibt nun tragischen Anlass. Ab 7.5. ist im Kino zu sehen, wie drei Akteure aus den Wissenschaften mit alldem umgehen. #DasGewichtDerWelt

We are hiring! Please spread, thanks! PS: Note that all applications have to go through our university's new online portal, see link in the pdf.

Almost a double-header! Last Friday and this Monday Dhananjoy and Christoph defended their theses, with great success. Thank you for your contributions and all the best to both of you!

Start of RESOLV’s third funding period With the beginning of the new year, the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV has officially started its third funding period (2026 to 2032) with new Research Areas. Learn more about our new Research Areas: www.solvation.de/research #SolvationScience

Chiral control through halogen bonding could be the next frontier for organocatalysis – allow Victoria Atkinson to guide you through the hisory, complexities and exciting new prospects on the horizon.

How chemists are harnessing halogen bonds for asymmetric synthesis

Chiral control through halogen bonding could be the next frontier for organocatalysis

chemistryworld.com

Congratulations to the Bach group (@bach-lab.bsky.social) for this very nice Co-catalyzed asymmetric C-H alkylation, to which we contributed a few DFT calculations: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Enantioselective Intramolecular C–H Alkylation Catalyzed by a Nonsymmetric Chiral Cobalt Porphyrin

Upon catalysis (1 mol %) by a chiral cobalt porphyrin, quinazolinones with a tethered diazo alkane precursor underwent an enantioselective C–H alkylation at carbon atom C4. Formation of five-, six-, a...

pubs.acs.org

Thank you, ChemistryWorld, and Victoria in particular, for featuring some of our work!

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 7mo ago

Just as chemists harness hydrogen bonds when designing organocatalysts, researchers have started using halogen bonds to promote a variety of reactions.

Two PhD positions still available! Please check the job openings! PhD Position 1 (application deadline Jan 5th): www.uni-due.de/karriere/ste... PhD Position 2 (application deadline Jan 22nd): www.uni-due.de/karriere/ste... Apply with cover letter and CV! Re-posts appreciated!

In November, we welcomed Lisa-Marie as a new PhD student. She will tackle some carborane-based halogen bond donors. All the best!

During our investigation on multidentate ortho-carborane-based halogen bond donors, we noticed that they from very interesting co-crystals with halides. Here is the full study - including a very rare sandwich complex with 6-fold coordination! chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Ortho‐Carborane‐Derived Halogen‐Bonded Sandwich Complexes

A systematic co-crystallization-study of a tridentate ortho-carborane-based halogen-bond donor with halides was performed. Several association complexes are evaluated to give further insights into th....

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

Just like halogen bonding, chalcogen bonding is not purely electrostatic - orbital interactions are also very important and my override the electrostatics. We recently published an illustrative example for this: inter-anion chalcogen bonding. See: pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/A...

Prof. Wolfgang Kirmse, former Chair of Organic Chemistry II at Ruhr-University Bochum, has died on October 3rd. He was known, inter alia, for many fundamental contributions to carbocation chemistry and was a very well-visible representative of our chemistry department for a long time. Rest in peace.

Please check this announcement for an early-career group leader, hosted jointly by our cluster of excellence RESOLV and the MPI Kofo. The thematic focus should be on catalysis: jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/4...

Early Career Research (ECR) Group Leader position (m/f/d) with the thematic focus on “Catalysis” within the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV

jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

In a preprint, we report a particularly interesting substrate for biaxial halogen bonding with iodine(III)-based Lewis acids: allenes. We also introduce chiral variants which allow enantiodiscrimination of allenes via NMR:

At the end of August, we said goodbye to Julian Wolf, former PhD student and postdoc. Thanks a lot for your contributions, particularly all the work to establish highly enantioselective XB catalysis, and all the best!

Wow. Check this out. Politicians actually trying to solve problems can achieve a lot! www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...

Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.

Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.

washingtonpost.com

We welcome Katyayani and Jelke as new PhD students to our group - both will explore different aspects of halogen and chalcogen bonding organocatalysis. All the best!

We have now finally completed the renovation of our synthesis labs. Thanks to Ruhr-University Bochum for providing us with such excellent infrastructure!

A paper with a Queen song title? Check! (Even though that was an easy one). We've investigated the high pressure behavior of halogen bonding and found some unexpected solvent @solvationsci.bsky.social dependence: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Halogen Bonding in Solution: Under Pressure

The first study of the high-pressure behavior of organic halogen bond donors in solution is presented: HP-NMR titrations were performed in various solvents, primarily with a neutral tridentate halogen...

pubs.acs.org

Last monday, we bid farewell to Saber Mehrparvar now that his two-year postdoc stay came to an end. He tackled a difficult project, under high pressure, which will hopefully be published soon. Saber, it was a GREAT pleasure having you around, all the best for your future!

Said opus magnum (see below) is now in its final layout: highly enantioselective organocatalysis with bidentate halogen bond donors! A breakthrough that we had been hunting fir many, many years: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Highly Enantioselective Organocatalysis with Bidentate Halogen Bond Donors

In a model Mukaiyama aldol reaction with unbiased substrates, high enantioselectivity was achieved with a modifiable bidentate iodine(I)-based halogen bonding organocatalyst. The crucial role of halo...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Today, Julian Wolf briliantly defended his thesis, congrats! His opus magnum can be found here: chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr.... Thanks to Raphael Stoll for chairing and to Gerald Dyker, Nils Metzler-Nolte for co-reviewing!