On December 18, 2024, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN)—a weekly news magazine published by the American Chemical Society with the largest circulation among chemical publications—announced that α-L-CD had been chosen as the Molecule of the Year for 2024 by C&EN’s readers. Since 2015, at the end of each year, the editors at C&EN have been selecting some of the coolest molecules reported in the past year as a Molecules of the Year list of finalists. Subsequently, the broad readership of C&EN will vote to pick a winner.
In this year, six (super)molecules appeared in the Molecules of the Year list. After a one-week online voting, α-L-CD received 1020 votes, which equals 30.4% of the total votes. The other five candidates, including a supramolecular shuttle in a box, anti-Bret’s rule molecules, a soluble promethium complex, a compound with a single-electron carbon–carbon bond, and a ZnH-studded metal–organic framework, received 603, 526, 510, 487, and 207 votes, respectively.
For more information, please refer to a corresponding news at C&EN using the following link: https://cen.acs.org/synthesis/Molecules-year-2024/102/i39