Rainer Herges

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Rainer Herges (* 1955 ) is a German chemist ( organic chemistry and organic synthesis, quantum chemistry , computational chemistry ) and professor at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel .

Life

Herges studied chemistry from 1975 at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken with a diploma in 1981 (diploma thesis valence isomerization and ring inversion of cycloheptatrienes ) and received his doctorate in 1984 at the Technical University of Munich under Ivar Karl Ugi (dissertation computer-aided deductive search for new reactions and their experimental realization ). The dissertation received the PhD award from the Technical University of Munich (1986). In 1984/85 he was a post-doctoral student with George Olah at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he worked on the synthesis of carbocations and dications, and at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg with Paul von Ragué Schleyer , where he studied in 1992 Habilitation ( reaction planning: rational planning of chemical reactions ). For this he received the ADUC Annual Prize (1993). In 1996 he became professor at the TU Braunschweig and in 2001 C4 professor at the University of Kiel (Otto Diels Institute for Organic Chemistry).

He was visiting professor at the École normal supérieure (Paris) in 1995 , at Stanford University in 1998 , at the University of Melbourne in 2005 (Willsmore Fellow) and in 2012 at the Australian National University . In 2012 he gave the Musher Memorial Lecture at the Hebrew University and in 2007 the Rubin Lecture at the Technion . In 2006 he was spokesman for the SFB 677 Function through Switching .

plant

From the computer-aided classification (with regard to the topology of electron redistribution) of thousands of single-step reactions, he found a new class in addition to the already known classes of linear reactions (such as addition, substitution, elimination) and cyclic topology, which he called coarctated or constricted reactions . In 2001 he developed a method of visualizing delocalized electrons (aromaticity) in molecules (ACID), implemented in the Gaussian software package (from 2009).

In 2003 he succeeded for the first time in the synthesis of stable aromatics with a Möbius strip topology (Möbius aromatic), but this led to controversial discussions. They were predicted as early as 1964 by Edgar Heilbronner , who also predicted that they have ( ) π electrons (contrary to Hückel's rule for common aromatics). Herges combined a normal aromatic structure with p orbitals perpendicular to the molecular plane with p orbitals in the molecular plane.

In 2009 he developed the platform concept for the synthesis of functional surfaces, in which functional molecules are attached to a reactive center of the platform via a spacer molecule. They are switchable and self-organized. In 2011 he developed switchable molecular magnets for applications in intelligent MRI contrast media. The substance is bistable at room temperature and in homogeneous solutions, in contrast to other known magnetic switches that occur in large solids or are bound to low temperatures. Use as a storage medium can also be considered.

In 2012 he also developed a light-driven molecular machine for synthesis (condensation of vanadates and phosphates). It serves as a simple model system that serves as an analog for the condensation of ADP to ATP.

Awards

In 2015 he received the science award of the state capital Kiel. In 1984 he received a Fedor Lynen grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and in 1986 a Liebig grant from the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie .

Fonts (selection)

  • with C. Hoock: Reaction Planning: Computer-Aided Discovery of a Novel Elimination Reaction , Science, Volume 255, 1992, pp. 711-713
  • Coarctate transition states: the discovery of a reaction principle , J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci., Vol. 34, 1994, pp. 91-102. doi : 10.1021 / ci00017a011
  • with Daniel Geuenich: Delocalization of Electrons in Molecules , J. Phys. Chem. A, Vol. 105, 2001, pp. 3214-3220, doi : 10.1021 / jp0034426
  • with D. Ajami, O. Oeckler, A. Simon: Synthesis of a Moebius aromatic hydrocarbon , Nature, Volume 426, 2003, pp. 819-821
  • with B. Baisch, D. Raffa, U. Jung, O. Magnussen, C. Nicolas, J. Lacour, J. Kubitschke: Mounting Freestanding Molecular Functions onto Sufaces: The Platform Approach , J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 131, 2009, pp. 442-444, doi : 10.1021 / ja807923f
  • with S. Venkatamarani, U. Jana, M. Dommaschk, F. Soennichsen, F. Tuczek: Magnetic Bistability of Molecules in Homogeneous Solution , Science, Volume 331, 2011, pp. 445-448
  • with Hanno Sell, Anika Gehl, Frank D. Sönnichsen: Thermodynamic and kinetic stabilization of divanadate in the monovanadate / divanadate equilibrium using a Zn-cyclene derivative: Towards a simple ATP synthase model , Beilstein J. Org. Chem., Volume 8, 2012 , Pp. 81-89.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Herges u. a., Nature, Volume 426, 2003, pp. 819-821, abstract
  2. Herges u. a., Science, Volume 331, 2011, pp. 445-448, abstract
  3. Herges, Sell et al. a., Beilstein J. Org. Chem., Volume 8, 2012, pp. 81-89, abstract
  4. Kiel Science Award 2015 for the chemist Prof. Dr. Rainer Herges . Kieler-Woche.de