Two scientists win the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their invention of the organic catalysis method

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced today, Wednesday, that the two scientists, Benjamin List and David Macmillan, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for their development of asymmetric organic catalysis, a method invented by the two scientists - alone - to stimulate the synthesis of organic materials.

Asymmetric Organic Stimulation

The manufacture of molecules is a very difficult and complex matter, and requires some kind of stimulation, as all industries depend on these molecules, which are used in all industries, from energy storage batteries to the prevention of some diseases.

The manufacture of these molecules depends on the use of catalysts, which are substances that do not enter into a chemical reaction, but help and speed it up. There are two types of catalysts available that chemists used to use: metals or enzymes.

However, the two scientists separately developed a third method of catalysis called asymmetric organic catalysis, which is based on small organic molecules;

"This innovative type of chemical catalysis is so simple that many people have asked why we haven't thought of it before," the academy said in its press release.

Organic catalysts contain a fixed form of carbon atoms, to which more active chemical groups can be added;

This means that these catalysts are environmentally friendly and inexpensive to produce.

However, this innovative method took on its importance due to its ability to stimulate the formation of asymmetric materials;

When molecules are formed, they take two opposite forms, one of which is a mirror image of the other.

Chemists and substance makers often desire only one form of these substances, for example when making pharmaceuticals.

Therefore, the method of organic stimulation has opened a new door since 2000;

They can be used to more efficiently catalyze the synthesis of any material, from the molecules that capture the light in solar cells to the molecules that go into the pharmaceutical industry.

Scientists Benjamin List and David Macmillan developed the method of asymmetric organic stimulation (communication sites)

Benjamin and David

Benjamin List was born in 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany, received his Ph.D. in 1997 from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and is now Director of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany.

Born in 1968 in the United Kingdom, David Macmillan received his Ph.D. from the University of California-Irvine in the United States, and is currently a professor at Princeton University in the United States.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is one of the awards recommended by Alfred Nobel in his will in 1895;

Nobel devoted the bulk of his fortune to a series of prizes awarded in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.

The prize was first awarded in 1901, and in 1968 the Swedish Central Bank established an additional prize in economics.

According to the Nobel Prize website, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded 113 times to 187 scientists between 1901 and 2021.

Frederic Sanger is the only winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice, in 1958 and 1980, and 7 women scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Marie Curie is the first woman to win the prize in 1911.

The late Egyptian scientist Ahmed Zewail is the only Arab to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Al-Jazeera)

Frederic Joliot-Curie is the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1935 at the age of 35, while John Goodenough is the oldest winner of the Nobel Prize in general, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 at the age of 97.

Some Nobel Prizes have been withheld 49 times since their inception, mostly during World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945).

In particular, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been withheld 8 times: 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941 and 1942.

It is worth mentioning that the scientist Ahmed Zewail is the only Arab who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, for his studies related to the transitional states of chemical reactions in the femtosecond time using spectroscopy.

The winners receive the award in a ceremony held on the tenth of December each year;

The winner is awarded a gold medal and award document, in addition to a cash prize.