George Andrew Olah
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George Andrew Olah
Hungarian–American chemist (1927–
Olah gained his PhD from the Technical University, Budapest, in 1949. He moved to Canada in 1956 following the Hungarian uprising and joined the staff of the Dow Chemical Company in Ontario. In 1964 he moved to America and in 1965 joined the faculty of the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. In 1977 he moved to the University of Southern California, becoming director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute in 1991. Olah became a naturalized American citizen in 1970.
In certain chemical reactions involving hydrocarbons, extremely short-lived highly reactive positively charged carbon intermediates are often formed. These have a positive charge on the carbon atom and are known as ‘carbonium ions’ or ‘carbocations’. Because of their short lifetime, little had been established about these intermediates.
Olah, while working at Dow, discovered a way to preserve the intermediates and to allow their properties to be investigated. He found that solutions of a very strong acid, variously described as a ‘superacid’ or a ‘magic acid’, would preserve carbocations for months at a time and thus allow their structure to be determined with such techniques as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Olah's superacids were formed by dissolving compounds such as antimony pentafluoride in water at low temperature. The result was an acid some 1018 times stronger than sulfuric acid. The stable carbocations formed in this way proved to be quite unusual, with structures quite unlike the more familiar tetrahedral forms. Olah's work quickly found important applications in industry; it has, for example, been widely used in synthesizing high-octane gasoline.
For his work on carbocations Olah was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry.
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George Andrew Olah
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George Andrew Olah
Olah, George Andrew, 1927-, American chemist, b. Budapest, Ph.D. Budapest Univ. of Technology and Economics, 1949. Olah was a researcher at Dow Chemical from 1957 to 1965 and a professor at Case Western Univ. from 1965 to 1977. Since 1977 he has been a professor at the Univ. of Southern California. Olah was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to carbocation chemistry. Carbocations, or positively charged hydrocarbons, are very short-lived, reactive intermediates in many reactions of organic molecules and are therefore difficult to study. Olah found that stable carbocations could be prepared through the use of superacids, enabling the properties of carbocations to be determined.
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George Andrew Olah
The native form of this personal name is Oláh György. This article uses the Western name order.
| George Andrew Olah | |
|---|---|
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| Born | May 22, 1927 Budapest, Hungary |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Fields | chemistry |
| Institutions | Case Western Reserve University, University of Southern California |
| Alma mater | Budapest University of Technology and Economics |
| Known for | carbocations via superacids |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1994 |
George Andrew Olah (born May 22, 1927 in Budapest, as Oláh György) is a Hungarian-American chemist. His research involves the generation and reactivity of carbocations via superacids. For this research, Olah was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994.[1] He has also been awarded the Priestley Medal, the highest honor granted by the American Chemical Society.
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Life
Olah was born in Budapest, Hungary, on May 22, 1927. After the high school of Budapesti Piarista Gimnazium (Scolopi fathers), he studied, then taught, at what is now Budapest University of Technology and Economics. As a result of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he and his family moved briefly to England and then to Canada, where he joined Dow Chemical in Sarnia, Ontario, with another Hungarian chemist, Stephen J. Kuhn. Olah's pioneering work on carbocations started during his eight years with Dow.[2] In 1965 he returned to academia at Case Western Reserve University and then to the University of Southern California in 1977. In 1971, Olah became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Olah is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California and the director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. In 2005, Olah wrote an essay promoting the methanol economy.[3]
The Olah family formed an endowment fund (the George A. Olah Endowment) which grants annual awards to outstanding chemists. The awards are selected and administered by the American Chemical Society.[4]
Work
The search for stable carbocations led to the discovery of protonated methane which was stabilized by superacids, like FSO3H-SbF5 ("Magic Acid").
- CH4 + H+ → CH5+
Olah was also involved in a career-long battle with Herbert C. Brown of Purdue over the existence of so-called "nonclassical" carbocations – such as the norbornyl cation, which can be depicted as cationic character delocalized over several bonds.
In recent years, his research has shifted from hydrocarbons and their transformation into fuel to the methanol economy. He has joined with Robert Zubrin, Anne Korin, and James Woolsey in promoting a flexible-fuel mandate initiative.
References
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1994". The Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1994/index.html. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
- ^ George A. Olah (1965). Friedel-Crafts and Related Reactions. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
- ^ George A. Olah (2005). "Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy". Angewandte Chemie International Edition 44 (18): 2636–2639. doi:10.1002/anie.200462121. PMID 15800867.
- ^ "George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry", Chemical & Engineering News, January 19, 2009, p. 74
Technical Publications
- Olah, G. "Superacid Catalyzed Depolymerization and Conversion of Coals. Final Technical Report. [HF:BF{sub 2}/H{sub 2}]", University of Southern California, United States Department of Energy, (1980).
- Olah, G. A. "Superacid Catalyzed Coal Conversion Chemistry. 1st and 2nd Quarterly Technical Progress Reports, September 1, 1983-March 30, 1984.", University of Southern California, United States Department of Energy, (1984).
- Olah, G. A. "Superacid Catalyzed Coal Conversion Chemistry. Final Technical Report, September 1, 1983-September 1, 1986.", University of Southern California, United States Department of Energy, (1986).
External links
- Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
- Methanol as an alternative fuel Recording of a discussion with George Olah broadcast on NPR.
- My Search for Carbocations and Their Role in Chemistry Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1994 by George A. Olah
- The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security
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