Nobel Prize of Chemistry (1996)
Daniel Jang, Kenneth Jang, Emma Johnson
Robert F. Curl Jr.
-Born: August 23. 1933
-Birthplace: Alice, Texas
-Worked as professor at Rice University
-Field: Structural Chemistry
-Fun Fact:
Sir Harold W. Kroto
-Born: October 7. 1939
-Birthplace: Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
-Worked as a professor at University of Sussex
-Field: Molecular Spectroscopy
-Fun Fact: His actual last name is Krotoschiner
Richard E. Smalley
-Born: June 6, 1943
-Birthplace: Akron, Ohio
-Death: October 28, 2005
-Worked as a professor at Rice University
-Field: Organic Chemistry, Structural Chemistry
-Fun Fact: His middle name is Errett
What did they do?
- Scientific Method
- In order to understand the composition of carbon rich stars, they set up an experiment to vaporize graphite with lasers.
- When they analyzed the results, they found a large number of exceptionally stable carbon molecules (Carbon Chains). So they started building models of them to discovered how it was configured.
- Results
- They discovered new forms of the element carbon called fullerenes that come in very stable spheres
- A fullerene is the roundest molecule discovered
What did they do to win?
- Significance
- found the carbon chains
- also unexpectedly found that the chain had 60 carbon atoms.
- What did they prove/challenge?
- proved the existence of carbon vapor through spectrum
- What did they help to prove later
- helped find endohederal fullerenes that had a metal atom inside the hollow carbon shell
- fullerenes can be applied on nanotechnology, such as cellphone microchips.