At the 2025 Spring Symposium of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Young Chemists Network (JCF), which took place in Münster from 12 to 15 March under the motto Cycling Chemistry, Julian Buchholz, PhD student in the Electrosynthesis Department, was awarded the Joint Poster Award. The prize was awarded jointly by the JCF and the Società Chimica Italiana Giovani (SCI Giovani) and includes an invitation to the Merck Young Chemist Symposium in Rimini in December 2025.

The award was given for his poster entitled ‘Electrochemical Dehydrogenative sp²-Coupling Reaction of Naphthols Accessing a Polycyclic Naphthalenone Motif’, in which a novel electrochemical reaction was presented. An unexpected sp² coupling reaction led to the formation of polycyclic naphthalenone structures – a product that could not have been predicted at the beginning of the project.

The subsequent mechanistic investigation revealed that the solvent 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropane-2-ol (HFIP) plays a crucial role: it forms a so-called solvent cage around the substrate, which enables the unusual product formation – a structure not previously described in the literature. The reaction was then optimized using statistical methods and demonstrated on various substrates.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the resulting naphthalenone backbone resembles a natural product isolated from fungi that grow in the roots of an orchid. This natural substance exhibits both antimicrobial and antiproliferative properties against cancer cell lines – an exciting starting point for further research and possible medical applications.

The scientific results of the work were published in the journal Organic Letters: 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.4c03518

We warmly congratulate Julian on this outstanding achievement!

More pictures of the award ceremony can be found on the social media channels of the JCF or the SCI Giovani.