Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 to

Jean-Pierre Sauvage
University of Strasbourg, France

Sir J. Fraser Stoddart
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

and

Bernard L. Feringa
University of Groningen, the Netherlands

"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"

They developed the world's smallest machines

A tiny lift, artificial muscles and miniscule motors. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 is awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa for their design and production of molecular machines. They have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added.

The development of computing demonstrates how the miniaturisation of technology can lead to a revolution. The 2016 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have miniaturised machines and taken chemistry to a new dimension.

The first step towards a molecular machine was taken by Jean-Pierre Sauvage in 1983, when he succeeded in linking two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain, called a catenane. Normally, molecules are joined by strong covalent bonds in which the atoms share electrons, but in the chain they were instead linked by a freer mechanical bond. For a machine to be able to perform a task it must consist of parts that can move relative to each other. The two interlocked rings fulfilled exactly this requirement.

The second step was taken by Fraser Stoddart in 1991, when he developed a rotaxane. He threaded a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle. Among his developments based on rotaxanes are a molecular lift, a molecular muscle and a molecule-based computer chip.

Bernard Feringa was the first person to develop a molecular motor; in 1999 he got a molecular rotor blade to spin continually in the same direction. Using molecular motors, he has rotated a glass cylinder that is 10,000 times bigger than the motor and also designed a nanocar.

2016's Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have taken molecular systems out of equilibrium's stalemate and into energy-filled states in which their movements can be controlled. In terms of development, the molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors. Molecular machines will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.

Press Release to the 2016 Chemistry Nobel Prize

Website of the Nobel Prize

Article on ChemistryViews

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2016/press.html
05.10.2016

ChemEdu'16 at the SCS Fall Meeting 2016

At the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 15, 2016, a session on Chemical Education was offered for the fist time. The event in the form of a symposium and workshop entitled “Future of Chemical Education” attracted more than 140 teachers from secondary school on upwards. The event, marked the successful start of the initiative to implement a new SCS Division of Chemical Education.

The four lectures and the four parallel workshops provided new ideas, new scientific topics as well as best practice in theoretical, practical and experimental chemical education.

Contact: Dr. Markus Müller, Kantonsschule Frauenfeld

More information about the event on http://scg.ch/chemedu/2016

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Photos: Simeon Lüthi

David Spichiger, SCS
30.09.2016

A Brief Review of the SCS Fall Meeting 2016

On September 15, 2016, the traditional SCS Fall Meeting took place at University of Zurich Irchel Campus, hosted jointly with ETH Zurich. The meeting attracted as many as 1’100 participants from academia, industry, and, for the first time ever, from education. With close to 600 scientific contributions, the Fall Meeting again offered a fantastic platform to the predominantly young scientists to meet peers as well as experts and specialists to discuss the results of their research.

The one-day event also offers the opportunity to widen the scientific knowledge and to connect with researchers from other fields of chemistry or chemical biology. In each of the eight thematic sessions, talks were given by awards winners, invited speakers and a representative of the session sponsor. All other oral contributions were from PhD students and post-doctoral fellows. The plenary sessions covered the lecture of the new SCS Honoray Member, Prof. E. Peter Kündig as well as the Sandmeyer and Paracelsus Award Lectures, presented by a team of Sika researchers and Michel Graetzel of the EPF Lausanne.

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Photos: Simeon Lüthi

Pictures of the SCS Fall Meeting Dinner an the Award Ceremonies

On the eve of the SCS Fall Meeting more than 60 guests from academia and industry followed the invitation of the SCS to the Fall Meeting Dinner. With pleasure we look back to this successful evening at Zunfthaus zum Rüden in Zurich on September 14, 2016.

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