Germany's Ertl wins Chemistry Nobel for fertilizers
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for research that increased scientists' understanding of how to clean car emissions and limit damage to the earth's protective ozone layer, according to Bloomberg.
Ertl's work in surface chemistry helped to explain why iron rusts and how fuel cells function, the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation said today in a statement on its Web site. His most important research examined a way to make fertilizer, for which fellow German Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in 1918.
``He is a role model for scientists around the world,'' Hans-Joachim Freund, a researcher at the Fritz-Haber-Institute said. ``Everyone greatly respects him.''
Ertl, who turned 71 today, will receive 10 million kronor ($1.6 million). Born in Bad Cannstadt, Germany, the researcher earned his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1965 from the Technische Universitaet in Munich. He is professor emeritus at the Fritz-Haber-Institut of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin.
The German scientist illuminated the dance of molecules on surfaces using intricate experiments. He first studied the behavior of hydrogen, which can be used to generate electricity in a fuel cell, on metal.
``From high school we tend to think of chemical reactions happening in water or air,'' though reactions also can take place on solids, Gunnar von Heijne, chairman of the Nobel committee for chemistry, said on a Webcast announcing the winner. ``Think of iron rust or catalytic converters and technologies like fuel cells.''
Capturing Nitrogen
Ertl next illuminated the Haber-Bosch process to make fertilizer, which captures plant-nourishing nitrogen from the air. The method now produces about 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer a year.
``This reaction, which functions using an iron surface as its catalyst, has enormous economic significance because the availability of nitrogen for growing plants is often restricted,'' the foundation said in the statement.
One percent of the world's annual energy supply is consumed in the Haber process. Last year, Germany's BASF AG paid $5 billion to acquire Engelhard Corp. to expand its offering of catalysts.
The prize winner's work may also help scientists understand why the ozone layer is deteriorating, the Nobel Foundation said. Freons used in air-conditioning reduce the ozone layer that protects the Earth from the sun's rays by reacting on the surfaces of small ice crystals high in the atmosphere.
Annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, peace and literature were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896.
Ertl is the second German awarded a prize this year, after Peter Gruenberg shared the physics prize with Frenchman Albert Fert for their work in developing the technology that has led to miniaturized hard disks for computers and music players.
On Monday, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the U.S. and the U.K.'s Martin Evans, who discovered how to alter genes in mice so the animals could be used for medical research, won the medicine award.
Last year, U.S. researcher Roger Kornberg won the chemistry prize for showing how genes are copied at the molecular level, enabling the human body to make use of information stored in DNA.
The Nobel Foundation was established in 1900 and the prizes were first handed out the following year. The economics prize was created in 1969 in memory of Nobel by the Swedish central bank. Only the peace prize is awarded outside Sweden, by the five- member Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
Ertl's work in surface chemistry helped to explain why iron rusts and how fuel cells function, the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation said today in a statement on its Web site. His most important research examined a way to make fertilizer, for which fellow German Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in 1918.
``He is a role model for scientists around the world,'' Hans-Joachim Freund, a researcher at the Fritz-Haber-Institute said. ``Everyone greatly respects him.''
Ertl, who turned 71 today, will receive 10 million kronor ($1.6 million). Born in Bad Cannstadt, Germany, the researcher earned his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1965 from the Technische Universitaet in Munich. He is professor emeritus at the Fritz-Haber-Institut of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin.
The German scientist illuminated the dance of molecules on surfaces using intricate experiments. He first studied the behavior of hydrogen, which can be used to generate electricity in a fuel cell, on metal.
``From high school we tend to think of chemical reactions happening in water or air,'' though reactions also can take place on solids, Gunnar von Heijne, chairman of the Nobel committee for chemistry, said on a Webcast announcing the winner. ``Think of iron rust or catalytic converters and technologies like fuel cells.''
Capturing Nitrogen
Ertl next illuminated the Haber-Bosch process to make fertilizer, which captures plant-nourishing nitrogen from the air. The method now produces about 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer a year.
``This reaction, which functions using an iron surface as its catalyst, has enormous economic significance because the availability of nitrogen for growing plants is often restricted,'' the foundation said in the statement.
One percent of the world's annual energy supply is consumed in the Haber process. Last year, Germany's BASF AG paid $5 billion to acquire Engelhard Corp. to expand its offering of catalysts.
The prize winner's work may also help scientists understand why the ozone layer is deteriorating, the Nobel Foundation said. Freons used in air-conditioning reduce the ozone layer that protects the Earth from the sun's rays by reacting on the surfaces of small ice crystals high in the atmosphere.
Annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, peace and literature were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896.
Ertl is the second German awarded a prize this year, after Peter Gruenberg shared the physics prize with Frenchman Albert Fert for their work in developing the technology that has led to miniaturized hard disks for computers and music players.
On Monday, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the U.S. and the U.K.'s Martin Evans, who discovered how to alter genes in mice so the animals could be used for medical research, won the medicine award.
Last year, U.S. researcher Roger Kornberg won the chemistry prize for showing how genes are copied at the molecular level, enabling the human body to make use of information stored in DNA.
The Nobel Foundation was established in 1900 and the prizes were first handed out the following year. The economics prize was created in 1969 in memory of Nobel by the Swedish central bank. Only the peace prize is awarded outside Sweden, by the five- member Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.