Hugh Stott Taylor

Sir Hugh Stott Taylor (born February 6, 1890 in Lancashire , England , † April 17, 1974 in Princeton , New Jersey ) was an English chemist who worked primarily in the field of catalysis research .

In a historical contribution in 1928 to the theory of heterogeneous catalysis , Taylor suggested that a chemical reaction does not take place on the entire solid surface of a contact, but only on certain active sites . He also developed methods for the extraction of heavy water during World War II .

life and work

Taylor was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, England in 1890, to glass technician James and Ellen (née Stott) Taylor. He attended Cowley High School in St. Helens and studied at Liverpool University , where he graduated with a Master of Science degree in 1910. Taylor worked on his doctoral thesis in Liverpool three years after graduating, after which he spent a year at the Nobel Institute in Stockholm in Svante Arrhenius' laboratory and at the Technical University of Hanover with Max Bodenstein . He received his PhD from Liverpool University in 1914.

Taylor developed the idea that active centers could only be present on the surface of a catalyst to a limited extent and that chemisorption could thus be inhibited with relatively few molecules. He showed that hydrogen atoms are important intermediate products in the reactions of hydrogen on metal surfaces and discovered the dehydrocyclization of heptane to toluene using a chromium oxide catalyst.

Cyclization of n- heptane to methylcyclohexane (or 1,2-dimethylcyclopentane)

Dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane to toluene as a subsequent reaction of the cyclization

In addition, Taylor developed a model of the α-helix that differs only slightly from the model proposed by Linus Pauling and Robert Corey (1897–1971). Taylor reported on the model in his 1941 Franklin Medal lecture and in a 1942 publication.

Taylor began his academic career at Princeton University in 1914 as a lecturer in physical chemistry and became an assistant professor in 1915. In 1922 he was appointed professor of physical chemistry and became director of the chemistry department at Princeton in 1926, where he taught and researched until 1951. In 1927 he received the Taylor David B. Jones Professor of Chemistry at Princeton; Taylor was also Dean of the Princeton Graduate School from 1948 to 1958. While at Princeton, he initiated the construction of the Frick Chemistry Laboratory . In 1932 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .

He married Agnes Elkizabeth Sawyer on June 12, 1919. They had two daughters. Taylor was both from Pope Pius XII. and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II . The Hugh Stott Taylor Chair of Chemistry at Princeton University was funded by an anonymous donation of $ 500,000 in honor of Taylor's contributions to Princeton. Taylor was an avowed Catholic who supported Catholic pastoral care at Princeton in 1928 and spoke publicly about the reconciliation of science and faith.

In 1919 he published a book on catalysis with Eric Rideal . The American Philosophical Society awarded him their Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1941 .

membership

In 1943 Taylor was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1928 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .

Fonts

• with Eric Rideal: Catalysis in theory and practice, Macmillan 1919
• A treatise on physical chemistry, Macmillan 1924

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical data of Hugh Stott Taylor
2. ^ Taylor, HS (1928). Proc. R. Soc. (London). A108, 105.
3. ^ Entry on Taylor; Sir; Hugh Stott (1890-1971) in the Royal Society Archives , London
4. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1900-1949 ( PDF ). Retrieved September 29, 2015
5. ^ Member History: Sir Hugh Taylor. American Philosophical Society, accessed April 2, 2018 . 

Web links

• Biography of Hugh Stott Taylor at princeton.edu