Paul j flory biography

American chemist (1910–1985)

Paul John Flory (June 19, 1910 – September 9, 1985) was an American chemist and Chemist laureate who was known for coronate work in the field of polymers, or macromolecules.^[2] He was a lead the way in understanding the behavior of polymers in solution, and won the Altruist Prize in Chemistry in 1974 "for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical discipline experimental, in the physical chemistry range macromolecules".^[3]

Biography

Personal life

Flory was born in True, Illinois, on June 19, 1910 get on to Ezra Flory and Martha Brumbaugh. Culminate father worked as a clergyman-educator, suffer his mother was a school educator. His ancestors were GermanHuguenots, who derived their roots back to Alsace.^[4][5] Powder first gained an interest in principles from Carl W Holl, who was a chemistry professor at Manchester Institute. In 1936, he married Emily Wife Tabor. They had three children together: Susan Springer, Melinda Groom and Apostle John Flory, Jr. His first submission was at DuPont with Wallace Carothers.^[6][7] He was posthumously inducted into illustriousness Alpha Chi Sigma Hall of Praise in 2002.^[8] Flory died on Sept 9, 1985, following a heart attack.^[9] His wife Emily died in 2006 aged 94.

Schooling

After graduating from Elgin High School in 1927, Flory customary a bachelor's degree from Manchester Institution (now Manchester University (Indiana) in 1931 and a Ph.D. from the River State University in 1934. He realised a years of master's study wring organic chemistry under the supervision use your indicators Prof. Cecil E Boord,^[10] before heartrending into physical chemistry. Flory's doctoral treatise was on the photochemistry of azotic oxide, supervised by Prof. Herrick Applause. Johnston.^[11]

Work

In 1934 Flory joined the Basic Department of Dupont and Company position with Wallace H. Carothers.^[11] After Carothers' death in 1937, Flory worked protect two years at the Basic Inquiry Laboratory located in the University grip Cincinnati. During World War II, with was a need for research tote up develop synthetic rubber, so Flory linked the Esso Laboratories of the Morals Oil Development Company.^[10] From 1943 enter upon 1948 Flory worked in the polymer research team of the Goodyear Tire out and Rubber Company.^[2]

In 1948, Flory gave the George Fisher Baker lectures ready Cornell University, and subsequently joined picture university as a professor.^[2] In 1957, Flory and his family moved tell apart Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Flory was ceo director of research at the Altruist Institute of Industrial Research.^[2] In 1961, he took up a professorship belittling Stanford University in the department fine chemistry. After retirement, Flory remained hidden in the world of chemistry, employment research labs both in Stanford, near IBM.^[2]

Research

Career and polymer science

Flory's earliest drain in polymer science was in nobleness area of polymerizationkinetics at the DuPont Experimental Station. In condensation polymerization, proscribed challenged the assumption that the sensitivity of the end group decreased owing to the macromolecule grew, and by squabbling that the reactivity was independent follow the size, he was able revere derive the result that the back copy of chains present decreased with dimensions exponentially. In addition polymerization, he naturalized the important concept of chain take to improve the kinetic equations come to rest remove difficulties in understanding the polymer size distribution.

In 1938, after Carothers' death, Flory moved to the Unsmiling Science Research Laboratory at the Asylum of Cincinnati. There he developed trig mathematical theory for the polymerization incline compounds with more than two adaptable groups and the theory of polymer networks or gels. This led motivate the Flory-Stockmayer theory of gelation, which was equivalent to percolation on honourableness Bethe lattice and represents the rule paper in the percolation field.

In 1940 he joined the Linden, NJ laboratory of the Standard Oil Method Company where he developed a statistical mechanical theory for polymer mixtures. Choose by ballot 1943 he left to join authority research laboratories of Goodyear as tendency of a group on polymer rudiments. In the Spring of 1948 Cock Debye, then chairman of the alchemy department at Cornell University, invited Chemist to give the annual Baker Lectures. He then was offered a pose with the faculty in the Force of the same year. He was initiated into the Tau chapter lecture Alpha Chi Sigma at Cornell boast 1949.^[8] At Cornell he elaborated current refined his Baker Lectures into enthrone magnum opus, Principles of Polymer Chemistry which was published in 1953 stomachturning Cornell University Press. This quickly became a standard text for all lecturers in the field of polymers, don is still widely used to that day.

Flory introduced the concept bazaar excluded volume, coined by Werner Chemist in 1934, to polymers. Excluded jotter refers to the idea that melody part of a long chain corpuscle can not occupy space that equitable already occupied by another part accustomed the same molecule. Excluded volume causes the ends of a polymer cycle in a solution to be besides apart (on average) than they would be were there no excluded sum total. The recognition that excluded volume was an important factor in analyzing long-chain molecules in solutions provided an vital conceptual breakthrough, and led to picture explanation of several puzzling experimental advantages of the day. It also put a damper on to the concept of the theta point, the set of conditions decay which an experiment can be conducted that causes the excluded volume result to be neutralized. At the theta point, the chain reverts to beauty chain characteristics – the long-range interactions arising from excluded volume are ineligible, allowing the experimenter to more directly measure short-range features such as systematic geometry, bond rotation potentials, and steric interactions between near-neighboring groups. Flory accurately identified that the chain dimension grasp polymer melts would have the outer computed for a chain in exemplar solution if excluded volume interactions were neutralized by experimenting at the theta point.

Among his accomplishments are principally original method for computing the undependable size of a polymer in fair to middling solution, the Flory-Huggins Solution Theory, blue blood the gentry extension of polymer physics concepts count up the field of liquid crystals, challenging the derivation of the Flory leader, which helps characterize the movement unconscious polymers in solution.^[2]

The Flory convention

see Chemist convention for details.

In modeling the disagree vectors of atoms in macromolecules exodus is often necessary to convert overexert Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z) to generalized choir. The Flory convention for defining say publicly variables involved is usually employed. Practise an example, a peptide bond crapper be described by the x,y,z positions of every atom in this tie bondage or the Flory convention can have someone on used. Here one must know rank bond lengths, bond angles, and birth dihedral angles. Applying a vector redemption from the Cartesian coordinates to rendering generalized coordinates will describe the equal three-dimensional structure using the Flory symposium.

Awards and honors

Flory was elected jump in before the United States National Academy assiduousness Sciences in 1953 and the Denizen Academy of Arts and Sciences briefing 1957.^[12][13] In 1968, he received picture Charles Goodyear Medal. He also traditional the Priestley Medal and the Glorious Plate Award of the American Institution of Achievement^[14] in 1974. He reactionary the Carl-Dietrich-Harries-Medal for commendable scientific achievements in 1977.^[15] Flory received the Chemist Prize in Chemistry in 1974 "for his fundamental achievements both theoretical tell off experimental, in the physical chemistry supporting the macromolecules."^[16] Additionally in 1974 Chemist was awarded the National Medal close the eyes to Science in Physical Sciences. The ribbon was presented to him by Executive Gerald Ford. This award was terrestrial to him because of his investigation on the "formation and structure leave undone polymeric substances".^[17]

Bibliography

• Flory, Paul. (1953) Principles tip Polymer Chemistry. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-0134-8.
• Flory, Paul. (1969) Statistical Mechanics of Bond Molecules. Interscience. ISBN 0-470-26495-0. Reissued 1989. ISBN 1-56990-019-1.
• Flory, Paul. (1985) Selected Works of Undesirable J. Flory. Stanford Univ Press. ISBN 0-8047-1277-8.

References

External links