Chemists win Nobel Prize for faster, cleaner way of making molecules

Making molecules is hard work. Atoms must be bonded together in specific arrangements through a series of chemical reactions. Those reactions often are slow and far from straightforward. They also can waste resources. The 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to two scientists who developed a tool some 20 years ago that revolutionized how chemists create new molecules. Their process is not only faster but also friendlier to the environment.

“This is a fitting recognition of very important work,” says H.N. Cheng. He’s president of the American Chemical Society, based in Washington, D.C. “We can think of chemists as magicians having magic wands in the lab,” Cheng says. “We wave the wand and a reaction goes on.” These Nobel laureates gave chemists “a new wand,” that’s drastically more efficient and less wasteful, he says.

That wand is a new way to speed the reactions that build specific molecules. It’s a process known as asymmetric organocatalysis (AY-sih-MEH-trik Or-gan-oh-kah-TAL-ih-sis). This year’s winners came up with the idea for it independently. One of the chemists, Benjamin List, works at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research. It’s in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. The other is David MacMillan. He works at Princeton University in New Jersey.

List’s and MacMillan’s work prompted others to seek out more organic catalysts and to study how they might be used. These catalysts tend to be small carbon-and-hydrogen molecules which might also include oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and/or phosphorus.

Catalysis is a big deal. Roughly one-third of the world’s collective income depends on it, notes Peter Somfai. He’s a chemist at Lund University in Sweden and another member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. At an October 6 news conference announcing the new winners, he noted “We now have a new powerful tool available for making organic molecules.” He said it’s one that can be drastically more efficient and “greener” than previous methods.

And because this process eliminates use of toxic chemicals, it’s also a far more environmentally friendly process.

If building new molecules is like playing chess, asymmetric organocatalysis has “completely changed the game,” Somfai said. “It’s like adding a new chess piece that can move in different ways.”

For their achievements, List and MacMillan will each get a medal and share 10 million Swedish kroner (more than $1.1 million).