News: DFG extends Research Training Group at the UR

As announced by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on Monday, 16 June 2025, it is extending funding for Research Training Group (RTG) 2620 ‘Ion Pairs in ReAction: Ion Pair Effects in Molecular Reactivity’ from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Regensburg. The Research Training Group ‘Ion Pair Effects in Molecular Reactivity’, in which a scientist from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Regensburg and a scientist from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) are also involved, has been positively assessed by the Research Foundation and can therefore start its second funding period of a further four and a half years.

"Research Training Groups are an essential building block in the internationally successful research of early career scientists. The approved project is characterised by professional excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration. I congratulate all the scientists involved on the extension and am delighted that the successful research work can be continued," explained University President Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel. 
"We are delighted that we will be able to continue our very successful and exciting ion pair research over the next four and a half years. We can now combine our versatile chemical ion pair concepts with machine learning and high-pressure analysis,‘ said spokesperson Prof. Dr. Ruth Gschwind, adding: ’A big thank you also goes to our clever and committed doctoral students, who impressed our reviewers."

The interdisciplinary training programme of the RTG focuses on the individual qualification of students; this is supported by a structured RTG programme and a project-oriented excellent research environment. ‘To develop transferable ion pair concepts for the prediction and control of structures, reactivities and stereoselectivities within the framework of excellent interdisciplinary doctoral training’ - this is how spokesperson Prof. Dr. Ruth Gschwind describes the vision of her research group, in which a further seven scientists from the University of Regensburg (Chemistry: Prof. Dr. Robert Wolf, Prof. Dr. Julia Rehbein, Prof. Dr. Patrick Nürnberger, Prof. Dr. Dominik Horinek, Prof. Dr. Burkhard König, Prof. Dr. Marcel Schorpp, Computer Science: Prof. Dr. Merle Behr) and two researchers from LMU Munich (Prof. Dr. Hendrik Zipse, Prof. Dr. Ivana Ivanović-Burmasović) are involved.

 

About the GRK 2620

Ion pairs are ubiquitous in chemistry, as every heterolytic reaction and many one-electron transfers generate ion pairs. Furthermore, the electrostatic attraction between counterions provides the strongest interaction energies of all intermolecular forces, which is utilised in all chemical disciplines. Many famous organometallic reagents as well as entire classes of inorganic clusters are ion pairs. Iminium and ion-pair catalysis has also become an important topic. However, the prediction of ground state structures, intermediates and transition states of ion pairs in solution remains a challenge. Moreover, ion pairs often form aggregates with flexible structures and diametric reactivities. Therefore, experimental access to ion pair structures and their reactivities in solution is very challenging. Theoretical calculations can only predict these with difficulty and the influence of ion pair aggregates is often overlooked in synthesis or catalysis.
The first phase of the RTG focussed on the formation of ion pairs, their structures and reactivities. In all research projects, the most fascinating and surprising results were based on ion-pair aggregates that were larger than a single ion pair. Therefore, the structures of such ion-pair aggregates, the mechanisms for extraordinary reactivities and selectivities, the prediction and design of new aggregates as well as the transfer to synthesis and catalysis will now be the focus of the continuation period. At the same time, the detection, structure and reactivity analysis of these ionic aggregates was very challenging even with the range of methods available. Therefore, high-pressure techniques and cryo-MS as well as machine learning are now included. 
The chemical disciplines represented in this RTG offer complementary perspectives, methods and concepts for the investigation of ion aggregates. However, the basic physical interactions are the same. Therefore, in this RTG, ion pair aggregates from different chemical fields will be investigated by an interdisciplinary team of spectroscopists, theoreticians and synthetic chemists from organic, inorganic, theoretical and physical chemistry as well as a machine learning specialist to maximise the transfer of concepts. Qualification measures at the level of the individual students, the project teams and the research training groups ensure highly challenging scientific projects and a broad and interdisciplinary training of the doctoral students.
Overall, the vision of the new period of the RTG is to analyse, exploit, predict and design the particular reactivities and selectivities of ion-pair aggregates in order to unlock their full potential in synthesis and catalysis, as well as to provide excellent interdisciplinary doctoral training.

RTG 2620 ''Ion Pair Effects in Molecular Reactivity'' - Universität Regensburg (external link, opens in a new window)