Huber Lab @ RU Bochum

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

How chemists are harnessing halogen bonds for asymmetric synthesis Chiral control through halogen bonding could be the next frontier for organocatalysis

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.

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...

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/...

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

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!

Thanks to Jas Ward and Kari Rissanen for the cooperation!

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....

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/...

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

Say hi ;-)

Thanks!

I was checking your work while you wrote and fully agree: beautiful examples that I'm ashamed to admit I mostly missed.

Which somewhat proves the point that having a common name helps keeping track and finding relevant work (at least from now on).

If you meant that we shouldn't "rebrand" existing phenomena and pretend they weren't know before, I'm fully with you. But I don't think that was/is the intention. Or did I misunderstand your point?
2/2

Does chalcogen bonding need a name? That's a philosophical question, but in my view it really helps to scan the literature (try finding chalcogen bonding adducts from earlier times...). Weakish Lewis acids, yes, but so are hydrogen bond donors... ;-)
1/2

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.

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

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...

Biaxial Recognition: Towards Chiral Resolution of Allene-Dicarbonyl Compounds by Iodolium-Based Halogen Bond Donors The coordination of allene dicarbonyl compounds to cyclic iodonium salts is presented as a new biaxial halogen bonding recognition motif. 1H¬ NMR titrations and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) ...

(here is the link:) chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

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!

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.

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

Yes, I like how the viewing angles combine (by chance)

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!

Thanks to Saber and Richard for the many measurements, to Christoph Held for the very nice cooperation and to our NMR department for their patience!

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...

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/...

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!

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...

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/...