Professor

Sir Harold W Kroto

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1996
B.Sc. University of Sheffield, UK
Ph.D. University of Sheffield, UK

Brief resume

Professor Sir Harold Kroto FRS Harold Kroto received a BSc (Chemistry, 1961) and a PhD (Molecular Spectroscopy, 1964) from the University of Sheffield. After Postdoctoral work at the National Research Council (Ottawa, Canada) and Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, NJ USA) he started his academic career at the University of Sussex (Brighton) in 1967. He became a professor in 1985 and a Royal Society Research Professor in 1991. In 1996 he was knighted for his contributions to chemistry and later that year, together with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley (of Rice University, Houston, Texas), received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of C60 Buckminsterfullerene a new form of carbon.

Research fields cover three major topics

1. Earlier research focused on the creation of new molecules with multiple bonds between carbon and elements, mainly of the second and third row of the Periodic Table, which were reluctant to form such a link. These studies showed that many of these previously assumed impossible species could be produced, studied by spectroscopy and used as valuable synthons leading to a wide class of new phosphorus containing compounds. In particular the spectroscopic studies of molecules with carbon-phosphorus multiple bonds were the pioneering studies that led to the now extremely active fields of phosphaalkene/alkyne chemistry.
   
2. Laboratory and radioastronomy studies on long linear carbon chain molecules (the cyanopolyynes) led to the surprising discovery (by radioastronomy) that they existed in interstellar space and also in stars. Since these first observations the carbon chains have become a major area of modern research by molecular spectroscopists and astronomers interested in the chemistry of space.
   
3. The revelation (1975-1980) that long chain molecules existed in space could not be explained by the then accepted ideas on interstellar chemistry and it was during attempts to rationalise their abundance that C60 Buckminsterfullerene was discovered. Laboratory experiments at Rice University, which simulated the chemical reactions in the atmospheres of red giant carbon stars, serendipitously revealed the fact that the C60 molecule could self-assemble. This ability to self-assemble has completely changed our perspective on the nanoscale behaviour of graphite in particular and sheet materials in general. The molecule was subsequently isolated independently at Sussex and structurally characterised. Present research focuses on Fullerene chemistry and the nanoscale structure of new materials, in particular nanotubes.

Key collaborations

With D R M Walton (Sussex), T Oka, L Avery, N Broten and J MacLeod (NRC Ottawa) on carbon chain molecules in the laboratory and space; J F Nixon on phosphaalkene/alkyne chemistry (at Sussex); with J P Hare, P R Birkett, A Darwish, M Terrones, W K Hsu, N Grobert, Y Q Zhu, R Taylor and D R M Walton on Fullerene chemistry and nanostructures (at Sussex); with R F Curl, J R Heath, S C O'Brien, Y Liu and R E Smalley (at Rice University Texas) on the discovery of Buckminsterfullerene.

He is Chairman of the board of the Vega Science Trust which is produces science programmes for network television. 50 have been made and so far 35 have been broadcast on the BBC Learning Zone. He is a member of National Advisory Committee on Cultural and Creative Education.

Awards etc include

• Tilden Lectureship of the RSC (1981)
• International Prize for New Materials by the American Physical Society (shared 1992 with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley)
• Italgas Prize for Innovation in Chemistry (1992)
• Royal Society of Chemistry Longstaff Medal (1993)
• Hewlett Packard Europhysics Prize (shared with Wolfgang Kraetschmer, Don Huffman and Richard Smalley 1994)
• Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996 (shared with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley)
• American Carbon Society Medal for Achievement in Carbon Science (shared with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley1997)
• Blackett Lecturship 1999 (Royal Society)
• Faraday Award and Lecture 2001 (Royal Society)
• Dalton Medal 1998 (Manchester Lit and Phil)
• Honorary degrees from the Universities of: Brussels (ULB), Stockholm, Limburg, Sheffield, Kingston, Sussex, Helsinki, Nottingham, Yokohama City, Sheffield Hallam, Aberdeen, Leicester, Aveiro, Bielefeld, Manchester Metropolitan, Exeter.
• Hon Fellowship: Bolton Institute.
• Graphic design work has resulted in numerous posters, letterheads, logos, book/journal covers, medal design etc.
• Awards: Sunday Times Book Jacket Design competition (1964)
• Moet Hennessy/Louis Vuitton Science pour l'Art Prize (1994)
• Fellow of the Royal Society 1990. FRS 1990
• Fellowships etc Academia Europaea 1993
• Hon. Foreign Member Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) 1997
• Hon. Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society 1998
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1998
• Hon Fellow of the RSC 2000

Research Highlights

a) Synthesis in 1976 of the first phoaphaalkenes (compounds containing the free carbon phosphorus double bond) in particular CH2=PH (with N P C Simmons and J F Nixon, Sussex), Refs 1,7.

b) Synthesis in 1976 of the first analogues of HCP, the phosphaalkynes which contain the carbon phoshorus triple bond - in particular CH3CP (with N P C Simmons and J F Nixon, Sussex), Refs 2,7.

c) The discovery (1976-8) of the cyanopolyynes, HCnN (n=5,7,9), in interstellar space (with D R M Walton A J Alexander and C Kirby (Sussex) and T Oka, L W Avery, N W Broten and J M MacLeod (NRC Ottawa)), Ref 4-6, based on microwave measurements made at Sussex, Refs 3,7.

d) The discovery of C60: Buckminsterfullerene in 1985 (with J R Heath, S C O'Brien, R F Curl and R E Smalley), Refs 8,13,15.

e) The detection of endohedral metallofullerene complexes (with J R Heath, S C O'Brien, Q Zhang, Y Liu, R F Curl, F K Tittel and R E Smalley), Ref 9

f) The prediction that C60 should be produced in combustion processes and might indicate how soot is formed (with Q L Zhang, S C O'Brien, J R Heath, Y Liu, R F Curl and R E Smalley) Ref 10

g) The explanation of why C70 is the second stable fullerene (after C60) and the discovery of the Pentagon Isolation Rule as a criterion for fullerene stability in general (Refs 11,13,15)

h) The prediction of the tetrahedral structure of C28 and the possible stability of "tetravalent" derivatives such as C28H4 Refs 11,15.
i) The prediction that giant fullerenes have quasi-icosahedral shapes and the detailed structure of concentric shell graphite microparticles (with K G McKay), Refs 12,13.

j) The mass spectrometric identification and solvent extraction (with J P Hare and A Abdul-Sada) of C60 from arc processed carbon in 1990 - independently from and simultaneously with the Heidelberg/Tucson group; Refs 14,15.

k) The chromatographic separation/purification of C60 and C70 and 13C NMR measurements which provided unequivocal proof that these species had fullerene cage structures (with J P Hare and R Taylor, Sussex), Refs 14,15.

Key Publications

1. 240 research papers; book "Molecular Rotation Spectra" (Wiley 1975 - reprinted with a new preface Dover 1992)
2. M J Hopkinson, H W Kroto, J F Nixon and N P C Simmons, 'The detection of unstable molecules by microwave spectroscopy: phospha-alkenes CF2=PH, CH2=PCl and CH2=PH', J.C.S. Chem. Comm., 513-515 (1976).
   
3. M J Hopkinson, H W Kroto, J F Nixon and N P C Simmons, 'The detection of the reactive molecule 1-phosphapropyne, CH3CP, by microwave spectroscopy', Chem. Phys. Letts., 42, 460-461 (1976).
   
4. A J Alexander, H W Kroto and D R M Walton, 'The microwave spectrum, substitution structure and dipole moment of cyanobutadiyne, HC5N', J. Mol. Spectrosc., 62, 175-180 (1976).
   
5. L W Avery, N W Broten, J M MacLeod, T Oka and H W Kroto, 'Detection of the heavy interstellar molecule cyanodiacetylene', Astrophys. J., 205, L173-175 (1976).
   
6. H W Kroto, C Kirby, D R M Walton, L W Avery, N W Broten, J M MacLeod and T Oka, 'The Detection of Cyanohexatriyne, HC7CN, in Heiles' Cloud 2', Astrophysics J., 219, L133-L137 (1978).
   
7. N W Broten, T Oka, L W Avery, J M MacLeod and H W Kroto, 'The Detection of HC9N in Interstellar Space', Astrophys. J., 223, L105-107 (1978).
   
8. H W Kroto, 'Semistable Molecules in the Laboratory and in Space', Royal Society of Chemistry Tilden Lecture; Chem. Soc. Revs., 11, 435-491 (1982).
   
9. H W Kroto, J R Heath, S C O'Brien, R F Curl and R E Smalley, 'C60: Buckminsterfullerene', Nature, 318(No.6042), 162-163,(1985)
   
10. J R Heath, S C O'Brien, Q Zhang, Y Liu, R F Curl, H W Kroto, F K Tittel and R E Smalley 'Lanthanum Complexes of Spheroidal Carbon Shells', J. Am. Chem. Soc., 107, 7779-7780 (1985).
    
11. Q L Zhang, S C O'Brien, J R Heath, Y Liu, R F Curl, H W Kroto and R E Smalley. 'Reactivity of large carbon clusters Spheroidal Carbon Shells and their possible relevance to the formation and morphology of soot', J. Phys. Chem., 90, 525-528 (1986)
    
12. H W Kroto, 'The Stability of the Fullerenes Cn (n = 24, 28, 32, 50, 60 and 70)', Nature 329, 529-531 (1987)
    
13. H W Kroto and K McKay, 'The Formation of Quasi-icosahedral Spiral Shell Carbon Particles' Nature, 331, 328-331 (1988)
    
14. H W Kroto "Space, Stars, C60 and Soot", Science, 242, 1139-1145 (1988)
    
15. R Taylor, J P Hare, A K Abdul-Sada, and H W Kroto, "Isolation, Separation and Characterisation of the Fullerenes C60 and C70: The Third Form of Carbon." J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., 1423-1425 (1990)
    
16. H W Kroto "C60: Buckminsterfullerene, the Celestial Sphere that Fell to Earth", Angewandte Chemie 31, 111-129 (1992)