The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016

Question: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 has been awarded to …?
a) Jean-Pierre Sauvage
b) Sir J. Fraser Stoddart
c) Bernard L. Feringa
d) a, b & c
Ans: (d)
Related facts:

  • On 5th October, 2016 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 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. Fering (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) for “ the design and synthesis of molecular machines.”
  • The prize share will be one third for each of the laureates.
  • 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.
  • The second step was taken by Fraser Stoddart in 1991, when he developed arotaxane. He threaded a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle. Based on rotaxanes he developed 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.
  • This year’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.
  • It is to be noted that The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded 108 times to 175 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2016. Frederick Sanger is the only Nobel Laureate who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice, in 1958 and 1980.
  • This means that a total of 174 individuals have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Reference:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2016/press.html
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/index.html