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It's 'a Great Day for Chemistry'

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

By Malcolm Ritter THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two Americans and a French scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for developing a chemical "dance" that makes molecules swap atoms, a process now used to create medicines, plastics and other products with more efficiency and less environmental hazard.

"What a great day for chemistry," declared Paul Anastas of the American Chemical Society, an advocate of environmentally friendly "green chemistry."

The $1.3 million prize will be shared by Robert H. Grubbs, 63, of the California Institute of Technology; Richard R. Schrock, 60, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Yves Chauvin, 74, honorary director of research at the Institut Francais du Petrole in Rueil-Malmaison, France.

They explained and improved a process called metathesis, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in bestowing the prize. This swapping of atoms between molecules creates new substances, and the winners have turned it into one of the most important reactions in organic chemistry, the academy said. Organic chemistry deals with carbon compounds.

"Metathesis reactions are an important tool in the creation of new drugs to fight many of the world's major diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's and AIDS," William F. Carroll Jr., president of the American Chemical Society, said in a statement. "They also are used to develop herbicides, new polymers and fuels."

To illustrate the atom-swapping process at a press conference in Stockholm, two Nobel Prize committee members invited two female assistants to dance, and switched partners.

Chauvin explained in 1971 how metathesis reactions work and what kinds of metal compounds can be used as catalysts to make the reactions happen.

Schrock, in 1990, was the first to produce an efficient metal- compound catalyst for the process. Two years later, Grubb developed the first in a series of improved catalysts.

Their work has led to chemical-making methods that are more efficient and generate fewer hazardous wastes -- a major advance for "green chemistry," the academy said.

"Metathesis is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the benefit of man, society and the environment," the academy said.

Anastas, director of the chemical society's Green Chemistry Institute, said the approach requires less starting material and less energy as well as creating virtually no waste to dispose of and fewer byproducts.

"This is a day that people will look back at and say there is a true recognition that the best chemists in the world are doing green chemistry, and that green chemistry is just a part of doing good chemistry," Anastas said.

Source: Daily Breeze

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