Newsgroup: it.scienza.chimica
Titolo: [Long] Assegnato il Nobel per la chimica

Dal sito dell'MIT
www.mit.edu
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MIT chemistry professor Richard Schrock wins Nobel
Prize
October 5, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT professor Richard R.
Schrock, one of the world's leading researchers in
the area of inorganic and organometallic
chemistry, has won the 2005 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry "for the development of the metathesis
method in organic synthesis."
Schrock, the Frederick G. Keyes Professor of
Chemistry at MIT, shares the prize with Yves
Chauvin of the Institut Français du Pétrole and
Robert H. Grubbs of Caltech.
Schrock was cited by the Nobel committee for being
the first to produce an efficient metal-compound
catalyst for metathesis--a chemical process
wherein two reacting structures swap places--in
1990.
In 1981 Schrock discovered catalysts that for the
first time made possible systematic control of a
class of compounds used in the production of
fuels, synthetic fibers, detergents, and many
other products. Such control is helping the
chemical and petroleum industries cut
manufacturing costs by permitting more efficient
manipulation of raw materials.
The catalysts Schrock discovered make it easier to
modify classes of hydrocarbons called olefins and
acetylenes. Olefins and acetylenes are raw
materials that chemists alter to produce many
products, but because two of their carbon atoms
are linked together by more than one chemical
bond, they are difficult to modify.
Schrock's catalysts are based on compounds of the
metal tungsten, the same material used in
incandescent light bulbs. Tungsten compounds have
the unusual ability to establish multiple bonds
between tungsten atoms and carbon atoms, which has
long been known. Schrock's systematic
investigation discovered the usefulness of the
compounds as catalysts.
Schrock said that one of the catalysts he
discovered contains a tungsten-carbon double bond.
It "scrambles" the ends of olefin molecules and
produces an entirely different olefin. The other
catalyst contains a tungsten-carbon triple bond.
It produces the same kind of scrambling reaction
with acetylenic compounds. The technical name for
the scrambling is metathesis reaction. The
metathesis reaction of acetylenic compounds was
unknown before Schrock's research.
Although scientists had known about the olefin
metathesis reaction for many years, their ability
to control it in a gentle way has been limited
because previous catalysts couldn't be prepared in
a systematic way. Schrock's catalysts can be
systematically prepared, making more precise
control of the metathesis reaction possible.
The American Chemical Society presented its 1996
ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry to Schrock for
his efforts to develop cleaner and more efficient
ways to manufacture chemicals.
Accepting the award at the society's national
meeting in New Orleans, Schrock said, "The real
impact here is ultimately in making
pharmaceuticals, polymers and other products where
exquisite control is necessary, and now it's
possible."
Schrock achieves that exquisite control, according
to the citation, with catalysts structured to lock
onto and join molecules that normally do not
react. He focuses on those catalysts that contain
a metal to which the molecules bind and react with
each other. 
"This will reduce the amount of waste and make the
environment safer and cleaner in the long run," he
said. "For example, the idea is to conduct a
reaction in water instead of [the industrial
solvent] toluene..."
Schrock's particular contribution, the society
said, "was to develop a method and a catalyst to
break open compounds whose atoms are arranged in a
ring. Once opened up into chains, these molecules
can be strung together in specific ways to form
polymers for everything from garbage cans to
athletic clothing. Or he can close up a chain into
a ring, for example, from which medicinal chemists
can design pharmaceuticals."
Schrock obtained the B.A. degree in 1967 from the
University of California at Riverside and the
Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1971. He spent a
year as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral
fellow at Cambridge University followed by three
years at the Central Research and Development
Department of E.I. duPont de Nemours and Co.
before joining the MIT faculty in 1975. He became
a full professor in 1980 and was named the
Frederick G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry in 1989.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He
was associate editor of Organometallics for eight
years, and has published more than 400 research
papers. 
In addition to the 1996 ACS Award in Inorganic
Chemistry, he has received the ACS Award in
Organometallic Chemistry (1985), the Harrison Howe
Award of the Rochester ACS section (1990), an
Alexander von Humboldt Award (1995), the Bailar
Medal from the University of Illinois (1998), an
ACS Cope Scholar Award in 2001, and the Sir
Geoffrey Wilkinson Medal in 2002.
Schrock was born January 4, 1945, in Berne,
Indiana. He and his wife Nancy F. Carlson have two
children.
--
Trixt
IHGGerD #105
Tre cose solamente m'enno in grado,
le quali posso non ben ben fornire,
cioe' la donna, la taverna e 'l dado:
queste mi fanno 'l cuor lieto sentire. 

[CUT]
Finalmente il premio Nobel torna ai chimici organici.

 Finalmente il premio Nobel torna ai chimici organici.
Hi hi hi
W la chimica vera, quella del carbonio;)
:D:D:D:D:D
-- 
"La sintesi organica è la chimica che fa Dio quando ha voglia di divertirsi
un po'. Se Dio è un chimico" (A.R.)
Albert Ruggi
www.chimicavita.cjb.net
albert...@virgilio.it
Powered by Linux;-)

Albert Ruggi wrote:
[CUT]
Ho visto l'olimpiadano di Stoddart sul tuo sito. Quest'estate ho visto 
Fraser Stoddart ad un convegno di chimica organica, ci ha presentato
i borremean rings. Nel suo campo è un vero genio.

 i borremean rings. Nel suo campo è un vero genio.
E si, è un piccolo padreterno :D 
Quando avrò tempo metterò altre cose sue...dovrebbe produrre di meno per
farmi stare al passo;-)


 Dove?
A Gargnano, alla Scuola di Chimico Organica "A. Corbella"