Giulio Natta

Facts

Giulio Natta

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Giulio Natta

Born: 26 February 1903, Imperia, Italy

Died: 2 May 1979, Bergamo, Italy

Affiliation at the time of the award: Institute of Technology, Milan, Italy

Prize motivation: "for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers."

Prize share: 1/2

Work

Synthetic materials like plastics are common in today's world. Plastic consists of very large molecules comprised of long chains of smaller molecules. After Karl Ziegler developed a method for creating these molecular chains using catalysts - substances that hasten the chemical process without affecting the end-products - Giulio Natta developed it further. In 1955 he discovered a catalyst that formed molecular chains with their parts oriented in certain directions. This made it possible to produce rubbery and textile-like materials.

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