Huber Lab @ RU Bochum
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shuberlab.bsky.social
Huber Lab @ RU Bochum
@shuberlab.bsky.social
Research in organic and supramolecular chemistry at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Key interests are applications of halogen or chalcogen bonding in solution.
Reposted by Huber Lab @ RU Bochum
Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.
November 3, 2025 at 2:35 PM
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...
'Anti-Electrostatic' (Inter-Anion) Chalcogen Bonding Interactions
In this work, the ability of 1,2-bis(dicyanomethylene)cyclopropanide substituents to enable inter-anion interactions has been expanded to chalcogen bonding. An anionic selenium-based chalcogen-bond do...
pubs.rsc.org
October 20, 2025 at 8:03 PM
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.
October 15, 2025 at 8:37 AM
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...
Early Career Research (ECR) Group Leader position (m/f/d) with the thematic focus on “Catalysis” within the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV
jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
October 2, 2025 at 1:54 PM
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:
September 19, 2025 at 2:52 PM
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!
September 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Huber Lab @ RU Bochum
Wow. Check this out.
Politicians actually trying to solve problems can achieve a lot!
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...
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.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 30, 2025 at 9:15 PM
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!
August 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
We have now finally completed the renovation of our synthesis labs. Thanks to Ruhr-University Bochum for providing us with such excellent infrastructure!
August 29, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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/...
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...
pubs.acs.org
August 7, 2025 at 10:36 AM
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!
July 7, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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/...
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...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Today, Julian Wolf briliantly defended his thesis, congrats! His opus magnum can be found here: chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr.... Thanks to Raphael Stoll for chairing and to Gerald Dyker, Nils Metzler-Nolte for co-reviewing!
March 25, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Huber Lab @ RU Bochum
Ein Appell von S4F an die Politik

Die Klima­krise und weitere Umweltkrisen (Biodiversitätsverlust, Überlastung biogeochemischer Stoffkreisläu­fe, ...) sind mittelfristig die größte Bedrohung für Sicherheit, Wirtschaft und Wohlstand, Demokratie, Zivilisation und Menschenleben.

➡️
March 10, 2025 at 6:21 AM
The combined power of halogen bonding and asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis = XB-ACDC: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/.... Thanks to @mertenlab.bsky.social for structure elucidation and to the List group for this beautiful cooperation! A perfect #RESOLV project! @solvationsci.bsky.social
Asymmetric Counteranion-Directed Halogen Bonding Catalysis
Halogen bonding has been established as a promising tool in organocatalysis. Asymmetric processes are nevertheless scarce, and their applications are limited to a few studies applying chiral halogen b...
pubs.acs.org
March 3, 2025 at 7:40 PM
So far, strong neutral halogen bond donors were often based on fluoroarenes. Here, we present ortho-carborane-based systems that clearly outcompete them: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... Thanks to Jas Ward and Kari Rissanen for the X-ray analyses and to Sandro Keller for assistance with ITC.
Ortho‐Carborane‐Derived Halogen Bonding Organocatalysts
Multidentate neutral halogen bonding catalysts based on iodinated icosahedral ortho-carborane moieties are introduced. Co-crystallization-studies, calorimetric measurements, and 1H NMR titrations dem...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
We are hiring! Please share, thanks!
February 11, 2025 at 7:33 AM
After a one-year hiatus on this platform, we have decided to move here for good - it's just a so much nicer place than the other one...

PS: For all biochemists and biologists who have started to follow us: thank you for your interest, but be aware that we don't really work much in these areas...
December 21, 2024 at 3:39 PM
We all wish you Merry Christmas and a great start into the New Year!
December 21, 2024 at 3:37 PM
We wish you - and in particular our three followers - merry Christmas and a great start into the new year!
December 21, 2023 at 5:15 PM