Studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.
Ertl’s research laid the groundwork for a science that allows us to understand processes ranging from the rusting of iron at the surface of our cars to the destruction of the ozone layer at the surface of ice crystals in the stratosphere. Ertl, who in 2004 retired as director of the Max Planck Society’s Fritz-Haber Institute in Berlin, said he was not expecting another Nobel to be awarded to a German after his countryman Peter Grünberg won the physics prize.
Surface insight
Ertl’s main impact was not in determining it was important to study surfaces (the growth of the semiconductor industry hammered that home), nor in developing instrumentation to study them. Rather he had the inspiration to see how various techniques already in use could be adapted and stitched together to provide a complete picture of how molecules behave at a surface. Such insights are crucial to understanding the action of catalysts – materials that speed up chemical reactions without being used up.
Ertl’s insights “provided the scientific basis of modern surface chemistry”, says the prize committee.
Perhaps the most impressive individual work undertaken by Ertl involved proving the exact mechanism of the Haber–Bosch process, a reaction vital to the chemical industry and the production of fertilizer. The process converts hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia using an iron catalyst. Using a variety of spectroscopic techniques — which use the interaction of electromagnetic radiation (such as light) with materials to determine the properties of surface molecules — Ertl uncovered how and when the strong nitrogen bond is broken during this process, proving which of many suggested mechanisms was correct.
Ertl’s main impact was not in determining it was important to study surfaces (the growth of the semiconductor industry hammered that home), nor in developing instrumentation to study them. Rather he had the inspiration to see how various techniques already in use could be adapted and stitched together to provide a complete picture of how molecules behave at a surface. Such insights are crucial to understanding the action of catalysts – materials that speed up chemical reactions without being used up.
Ertl’s insights “provided the scientific basis of modern surface chemistry”, says the prize committee.
Perhaps the most impressive individual work undertaken by Ertl involved proving the exact mechanism of the Haber–Bosch process, a reaction vital to the chemical industry and the production of fertilizer. The process converts hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia using an iron catalyst. Using a variety of spectroscopic techniques — which use the interaction of electromagnetic radiation (such as light) with materials to determine the properties of surface molecules — Ertl uncovered how and when the strong nitrogen bond is broken during this process, proving which of many suggested mechanisms was correct.
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