The Octochemist Tournament
About it
Dr Flore Kilens, Prof Haritz Sardon and Dr Coralie Jehanno identified 1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine (TMG) as the best option to replace TBD due to its high thermal stability and excellent catalytic activity.Emphasising the judicious choice of base for building up a cost-effective and efficient acid-base catalyst. This work focuses on the use of organocatalysts in polymerisation reactions, offering a more sustainable and efficient alternative. The result was featured on the cover feature in ChemCatChem: Volume 16, Issue 20
Roles: Conceptualisation, Illustration
Client: POLYKEY & Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
Tools: Photoshop
The Challenge
The study identified TMG as the best replacement for TBD in organocatalytic polymerisation, a more thermally stable, cost-effective option. The cover had to convey the idea of a systematic screening of catalysts, essentially a competition between candidates, in a way that felt immediate and engaging rather than like a technical comparison table.
The Process
The concept of a catalyst tournament led us straight to the Triwizard Tournament from Harry Potter, except here, the competitors are organocatalysts vying for the title of most sustainable option. Each fictional house from the chemistry school was given its own representative chemical flag, turning the molecular candidates into rival factions. To anchor the scene in something real, we packed it with details from everyday lab life: scribbled notes on the table, an old AKTA system still running Windows XP, and even a small painting of Donostia that hangs in our actual lab. Those touches grounded the fantasy concept in a world the public would instantly recognise as their own.