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CHI Apr Att.Pino Web IIB XP Attualità The Scientific Activity of Giulio Natta from 1949 to 1973 by Piero Pino his most significant period of the sci- T entific activity of Prof. Natta started with his first contacts with the U.S.A. chemical industry, where a very rapid development of petrochemistry was pro- ducing substantial and unexpected changes. The profound emotions that Professor Natta felt during his first trip to the U.S.A. are well described in a paper published in La Chimica e l’Industria [1]. Since Natta had received his education in chemistry and chemical engineering in the twenties, i.e. when industrial organic chemistry was mainly based on coal and fermentation products, he was fascinat- ed by the new possibilities offered to the chemical industry by the practically un- limited availability of unsaturated hydro- carbons like ethylene, propylene, butenes and butadiene easily obtainable from petroleum and he immediately rec- ognized the industrial potential of the Figure 1 - Summary of Natta’s research in the field of carbon monoxide chemistry chemistry of aliphatic compounds. P. Giustiniani - at that time GeneraI Man- sent number of U.S.A. researchers, graduates in chemistry and industrial ager of Terni SpA, and later Managing these figures seem insignificant” [1]. In chemistry should be engaged every year Director of Montecatini SpA - with whom the same article he also writes: “In my to be trained in industrial aliphatic organ- Natta visited the U.S.A. for the first time, life as a modest researcher there were ic chemistry at the Industrial Chemistry shared his enthusiasm. Thus, by the end ten at the most chemists under my direc- Institute of the Politecnico, before they of the forties, the Industrial Chemistry In- tion, and to follow them all seemed to be would start to work in the Montecatini stitute of the Politecnico of Milan and a very hard work to me. I wonder how a laboratories. After the didactic experi- Montecatini Company (later Montedison) single man can direct 500 to 600 re- ence made in the more developed coun- established that fruitful collaboration searchers“. Being highly interested in re- tries in Europe and in the U.S., the which was to produce extremely impor- search organization, he often urged me trainee would have to carry out a re- tant industrial achievements, among to describe how research was carried search project independently and attend which the commercial production of iso- out at the Organic Chemistry Laboratory courses on industrial organic chemistry, tactic polypropylene. On his trip to the of the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, as well as on advanced topics of organic U.S.A., Professor Natta was impressed where I had gone in 1950 to specialize in chemistry, physical chemistry, and in- by the number of scientists who worked organic chemistry under the direction of strumental analysis. It is to Mr. Giustini- at the research laboratories and by the Professor Ruzicka, a scientist whom ani’s credit that he acceded to Natta’s re- way in which research was organized. Natta admired for his achievements in quest without faltering. Actually, Natta’s In 1948 he wrote: “It often happens that the field of organic syntheses. plans would never have been realized the number of chemists working in those Thinking that the academic world - without the support of the industry. huge Iaboratories is 400 to 600. A few scarcely ready for substantial innova- Thanks to the careful selection of the years ago it amazed us that the number tions - could hardly have provided young trainees and to the high quality of the of chemists working at the I.G. laboratory graduates with the up-to-date prepara- teachers (in addition to Prof. Natta him- of Reppe was about 100, and that the re- tion required for the large-scale introduc- self, I wish to mention Prof. A. Quilico, search on nylon was carried out by 30 tion of petrochemistry in Italy, and, at the Prof. G.B. Bonino, the late Prof. R. Pio- scientists. Now, compared with the pre- same time, wishing to avail himself of a ntelli, as well as notable industrial man- research team capable of competing agers, such as G. Greco and the late F. P. Pino, Eidgenössische Technische Hoch- with the U.S.A. teams, Natta proposed, Tredici), and to the climate in which the schule - Zürich. and Mr. Giustiniani agreed, that 10-20 trainees were able to develop their sci- RICHMAC Magazine - Aprile 2003 85 - La Chimica e l’Industria - 1 Attualità entific work, the chemists educated at catalytic activity of the cobalt-based cat- ly to a minor part of his scientific activity. the Milan Politecnico in the early fifties alysts discovered by Rohlen was higher Indeed Natta obtained his most impor- still constitute the supporting structure of than that of the nickel catalysts discov- tant achievements in the field of high the major laboratories of the Italian ered by Reppe, Natta reinvestigated the polymers. His first research in this field chemical industry. Some of their names carbonylation of acetylene. started in 1932 during his stay in and present positions are mentioned in The research he carried out in this field Freiburg im Breisgau where he met Pro- parentheses in Figures 1 and 6, after the from 1947 to 1954 resulted finally in a fessor H. Staudinger [18]. Later, he con- description of the research works they new one step synthesis of succinic acid tributed to the first production of synthet- collaborated on. from acetylene [4]. A pilot plant based on ic rubber in Italy. After World War II, I have dwelt on this project because, in this research was later implemented with polymers remained to be one of his main my opinion, it largely contributed to the the collaboration of I. Pasquon and G. research interests, even though after the extraordinary results that Natta achieved AIbanesi. As early as 1944 Natta real- end of the initial activity in the field of in the period from 1953 to 1963. These ized that the olefins hydroformylation synthetic rubber no experimental re- very results were obtained also because rate was independent of the total pres- search was in progress in his Institute till the Institute was provided not only with sure of the 1:1 carbon monoxide and hy- the end of the forties. modern equipments for x-ray and elec- drogen gaseous mixture. However, it In the early fifties Natta started to investi- tron diffraction studies (the traditional was only after ten years that Natta suc- gate some physical properties of the field of Natta’s research activity), but al- ceeded in demonstrating that the said in- polymers, e.g. the rate of ultra-sonic so with adequate equipment waves in melted polymers (with for Ir and Uv spectrography, M. Baccaredda [8]) and the which at the time were consid- structure of crystalline polyeth- ered pioneering techniques. ylene (with P. Corradini [9]). Various research teams and However, he never ceased to services were established be interested in the synthesis within the Institute, even if in- of macromolecular compounds. formally. An important step in His talk often turned to the the life of the Institute was the high-molecular-weight linear creation of the Plastics Test- paraffins of which, during a trip ing Laboratory, set up by Nat- to Germany, he had received a ta with the collaboration of sample produced by the Fisch- Prof. D. Pagani, and with the er-Tropsch reaction in the pres- financial support of Milanese ence of ruthenium catalysts. firms [2]. The space available Natta resumed his experimen- for the Institute was consider- tal activity in the field of macro- ably increased with the con- molecular syntheses after he struction of a new building and had attended the lecture that the acquisition of the building Figure 2 - Chain growth by monomer addition Professor K. Ziegler delivered formerly housing the “Stazione to an activated chain end (1, 2, 3) or by monomer in Frankfurt (1952) about the Sperimentale per i Combu- insertion into a metal-to-carbon bond [4] ethylene polymerization in the stibili”. The scientific activity presence of alkyl aluminum developed by Natta from 1948 onwards dependence was connected with a reac- compounds (Ziegler’s “Aufbaureaktion” followed two main trends of high theoret- tion of first order with respect to hydro- [10]). At the end of the above lecture, ical and practical interest, which are still gen and of order (-1) with respect to car- which I also attended, Natta asked for valid even if 30 years have elapsed, i.e. bon monoxide (with the late R. Ercoli, full my opinion about Ziegler’s research: I the chemistry of carbon monoxide and Professor of Industrial Chemistry, Paler- was most favorably impressed by the synthesis and properties of macro- mo University, and S. Castellano, Car- Ziegler’s research on such a difficult sub- molecular compounds. Natta’s early re- negie Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa. ject, but I felt doubtful about the commer- search on the chemistry of carbon mo- U.S.A. [5]). Natta’s interest in the chem- cial prospects for Ziegler’s results. noxide dates back to the twenties. In the istry of carbon monoxide remained alive On this last point Natta’s opinion was op- early forties he became acquainted with even in subsequent years. As a matter of posite to mine: being well acquainted, the “oxo-synthesis”, a reaction discov- fact, he investigated the preparation and thanks to his previous work on synthetic ered by Dr. RohIen of Ruhrchemie. reactivity of chromium hexacarbonyl and rubber, with radical polymerization, he at Realizing its commercial importance, its arenic derivatives, and synthesized once realised - probably even before Natta investigated this reaction after vanadium hexacarbonyl, thus obtaining Ziegler himself - that the German scien- 1943 (with E.
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