Robert Banks

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Robert Louis Banks (born November 24, 1921 in Piedmont (Missouri) , † January 3, 1989 ) was an American chemist and inventor.

Life

Banks graduated from the University of Missouri at Rolla , Missouri , and earned his master's degree in chemical engineering from Oklahoma State University . During the Second World War he worked as an engineer in an oil refinery in Coffeyville , Kansas . In 1946 he went to the Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville , Oklahoma , where he worked in the research and development department until his retirement in 1985. As early as 1946 he began working with J. Paul Hogan (1919–2012) to manufacture polyolefins .

Using special metallic catalysts, they succeeded in producing polypropylene under mild conditions (pressures, temperatures) in the early 1950s . After legal disputes that lasted about three decades, the Phillips company was awarded the patent for polypropylene in 1983. Hogan and Banks are considered to be its inventors. Their discovery of crystalline polypropylene and the development of high-density polyethylene (PE) ( high-density PE, PE-HD or HDPE) led Phillips to the industrial manufacture of various products that were marketed under the brand name Marlex .

In 1987, Banks received the Perkin Medal with Hogan , and in 1998 he was posthumously named a Hero of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society (ACS). In 1987 he received an honorary doctorate from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. In 2001 he was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame .

Fonts (selection)

  • JP Hogan, RL Banks, WC Lanning, A. Clark: Polymerization of light olefins over nickel oxide - silica-alumina . In: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry . tape 47 , no. 4 , 1955, pp. 752-757 , doi : 10.1021 / ie50544a032 .
  • A. Clark, JP Hogan, RL Banks, WC Lanning: Marlex catalyst systems . In: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry . tape 48 , no. 7 , 1956, pp. 1152-1155 , doi : 10.1021 / ie50559a021 .
  • JP Hogan, RL Banks: History of crystalline polypropylene . In: RB Seymor, T. Cheng (Ed.): History of Polyolefins (=  Chemists and Chemistry ). tape 7 . Springer, Dordrecht 1986, ISBN 978-94-010-8916-6 , pp. 103-115 .

literature

  • American Chemical Society (Ed.): Discovery of Polypropylene and the Development of a New High-Density Polyethylene . A National Historic Chemical Landmark. Phillips Petroleum Company, Bartlesville November 12, 1999 ( acs.org ).
  • Raymond B. Seymor et al .: John P. Hogan and Robert Banks inventors of linear polyolefins . In: RB Seymor (Ed.): Pioneers in Polymer Science (=  Chemists and Chemistry ). tape 10 . Springer, Dordrecht 1989, ISBN 978-94-010-7584-8 , chap. 23 , p. 221-225 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-94-009-2407-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heroes of Chemistry Recipients. American Chemical Society, accessed March 5, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Banks, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Banks, Robert Louis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Piedmont, Missouri
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1989