| Citation | Lehn shared the Nobel Prize of 1987 for his work on the design and synthesis of large organic molecules which could form cavities, receptors, for smaller inorganic ions or organic molecules. The first of the designed macrocyclic compounds, called cryptates, recognised simple cations such as sodium and potassium ions. They are shown to be comparable with a series of known antibiotics which transported such ions across biological membranes. Extending the ideas to a wider range of both organic and inorganic cations and anions Lehn developed the ways in which selectivity of binding could be enhanced by the careful construction of organic frameworks. The delicate nature of the organic syntheses involved has been widely recognised. His observations had obvious implications for many receptor systems in biology. It even proved possible to extend the work to the catalysis of some reactions in parallel with enzyme chemistry. Using similar design principles Lehn has gone on to develop larger units in what he calls supramolecular complexes. Here he has shown some of the ways ion which to tackle self-organising systems, which are at the heart of biology.
For his synthetic skills and his development of ideas in these border areas of inorganic/organic chemistries and biological chemistry, Lehn has been made a foreign member of several academies and received many honourific [sic] awards apart from the Nobel Prize. |