German physicist Gerhard Ertl received the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of surface chemistry – the fundamental molecular processes at the gas-solid interface.
Surface chemistry is not a new science but gained importance in the 1960s as an offshoot of the semiconductor industry. It also explains such varied processes as why iron rusts, how fuel cells function, how artificial fertilisers are made and how catalytic converters in our cars work. When a gas or liquid molecule hits a solid surface the molecule may simply bounce back or be adsorbed. It can split into its constituent atoms, react with previously adsorbed molecules or even react directly with surface atoms. Surface chemistry can even contribute to the understanding of the destruction of the ozone layer, as crucial reactions take place on the surface of ice crystals in the stratosphere.
Ertl explored new techniques, under sterile conditions and using new technology such as tunnelling microscopes to provide a complete picture of a surface reaction. He fi rst determined the molecular mechanism of the Haber-Bosch process, in which iron is used to transform nitrogen from the air together with hydrogen to ammonia, which is e.g. the key compound for the production of artificial fertilisers. He went on to study the oxidation of carbon monoxide over palladium and platinum (catalytic converter) and discovered the phenomenon of oscillating changes in surface structure that occur during reaction.
Gerhard Ertl was born in 1936 in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. He studied physics at the Technical University of Stuttgart from 1955–7 before continuing his studies at the University of Paris (1957–8) and the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (1958–9). He completed his diploma (master’s degree) in physics at the Technical University of Stuttgart in 1961, followed his thesis advisor Heinz Gerischer from the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart to Munich and received his PhD from the Technical University of Munich in 1965.
Ertl stayed on at Munich as an assistant and lecturer until 1968, when he took a post as professor and director at the Technical University of Hanover. In 1973 he returned to Munich as a professor of physical chemistry at Ludwig Maximilian University. In 1986 he became professor at Berlin’s Free University and at the Technical University. He was director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft from 1986 until his retirement in 2004, adding a professorship at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1996. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was also a visiting professor in California at Caltech and Berkeley and in Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received the Japan Prize in 1992 and shared the Wolf Prize in 1998 with Gabor Somorjai of California, Berkeley. The Nobel Prize was announced on Ertl’s 71st birthday. He and his wife Barbara have two children, several grandchildren, a piano and some cats.
This text and the picture of the Nobel Laureate were taken from the book: "NOBELS. Nobel Laureates photographed by Peter Badge" (WILEY-VCH, 2008).
Picture: © Peter Badge/ Foundation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meetings at Lake Constance |
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BENEFACTORS:
(SI) Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
(DE) Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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