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tions for suitable themes and details of other possible participants will also be par- ticularly welcome.

Fads in Research - - Fullerite versus ortho-para-H2 Convers ion

A recent book in the Advanced Series in Fullerenes [1] was reviewed in The Chemical Intelligencer. This volume is a 473 page book that covers the recent epidemic growth of fullerene research. The book review contains a plot showing the annual output of publications in fullerene research and this plot has been updated by the writer (Fig. 1). A paper by Kr&tsch- mer et al. [2] provided the impetus to change the constant or slightly declining trend of publications on this topic into an exponential or even more rapid growth.

Such rapid growth draws attention to the subject, and the writer acknowledges

# of Citations

2,500 I 1

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95

YEAR

Fig. 1. Annual output of publications in fullerene research.

to succumbing to this appeal. However, we found that whereas fullerite was a cata- lyst for the conversion of 4-(1-naphthylme- thyl)-bibenzyl, Norit activated carbon was a 4-10 times better catalyst than fullerite [3]. A similar result was obtained when these two carbon catalysts were used for direct coal liquefaction, except the conver- sions were decreased from that of the ther- mal reaction. Thus, our interest in this topic quickly waned.

The growth of fullerite activity allows the scale of modern science to be compared to that of earlier time periods. The introduc- tion of quantum theory led to the theoreti- cal prediction of the existence of two dis- tinct forms of hydrogen, ortho-H2 and para- H2, due to the fact that they possess differ- ent nuclear spins. Bonhoeffer and Hartec passed hydrogen over charcoal at liquid nitrogen temperature to 'clean-up' the hy- drogen prior to passing it over a Pt catalyst, a material that they 'knew' had to be an active catalyst for the o-p conversion. They were amazed to find that charcoal was itself an exceptionally active catalyst [4] and even more active than Pt at liquid air temperature. Many of the papers that appeared during the first 'exponential' growth-decline period during 1930-1940 originated from the laboratory of Bonhoef- fer, with Hartec and the Farkas brothers, Adalbert and Ladislas, as authors or coau- thors (Fig. 2). Thus, during the year 1933 the two Farkas brothers, by then working in the laboratory of Sir Eric Rideal, publish- ed 17 papers on o-p-H2 and/or H2/D2 con- versions and thereby became the major contributors to the exponential growth of that year as well as many of the early years. The overall growth peaked at about 20 papers/year compared to greater than 2000/year for fullerite during 1995. The

appl ied catalysis A: General Volume 137 No. 2 - - 11 April 1996

N10 50

4O ol r . O

30 ..0

a..

3 20

E = 10

Z

i i

1910 1920

i . " i i j ; , ,

i - ' =

' i

i ' I I E I

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990

Y e a r

Fig. 2. Number of publications on ortho-para-hydrogen conversion vs. year. Farkas brothers, and others, were driven in their work on o-p-H2 by their curiosity and the desire to test the validity of a prediction based on quantum theory. The results quickly satisfied this curiosity and the num- ber of published papers declined just as rapidly.

With the increased interest in rocket propulsion following WWII, technological applications began to drive interest in the o-p-H2 conversion. The desire to use liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel led engineers to realize that the 'boil-off' during the filling of

fuel tanks could be greatly reduced if the o-p-H2 catalyst conversion was used to cool the boiled-off vapor. The exponential growth of publications on this topic during this period would have been much greater if the 'cold-war space race' had not caused many of the research results to be classi- fied and thereby not to be published in the open literature.

The contrast between these times for the two initial growth curves is illuminating. Dr. Farkas [5] reports that when he arrived in England he was told that, because of a severe overcrowding problem, he could

start his work in a corner of Rideal's big office which was located in the attic. He wrote, "...within a few weeks I installed my thermal conductivity apparatus after many hours of glass blowing while standing on one foot and pumping the bellows with the other for my blowtorch since there was no compressed air in the laboratory." Berze- lius, defining catalysis in 1836, would have noted only small changes between Farkas' laboratory space, lab equipment and hands-on laboratory skills from that of his own period 100 years earlier. On the other hand, 60 years later, we note that a com- puter will generate a 'cross-indexed bibli- ography' of more than 3000 references to fullerene research over a nine-year period and have it offered for sale as a 473 page hardback book priced at $93.00. The fads today appear more frequently and with an intensity that Farkas, let alone Berzelius, could never have imagined. The times have changed and we in catalysis need to accept this.

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References

[1] T. Braun, A. Schubert, H. Maczelka and L. Vasv~ri, Fullerene Research 1985- 1993. A Computer Generated Cross-In- dexed Bibliography of the Journal Lit- erature.

[2] Kr~.tschmer, Nature, 347 (1990) 354. [3] R.A. Keogh, J.P. Selegue, B. Shi and

B.H. Davis, 11th Ann. Int. Pittsburgh Coal Conf., Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1994, Vol. 1, pp. 493-499.

[4] K.F. Bonhoeffer and P. Hartec, Na- turwiss., 17 (1929) 182.

[5] A. Farkas, in B.H. Davis and W.P. Hettinger, Jr. (Editors), Heterogeneous Catalysis. Selected American Histories, Am. Chem. Soc. Symp. Ser., 222 (1983) 89.

B.H. Davis

Publicizing Catalysis

Human nature is such that we complain when we do not feel that we are getting our fair share and, at the same time, we fail to compliment those who help us in our ef- forts.

One person who has been at the fore- front of bringing catalysis before the general scientific community is Joseph Haggin of the Chicago office of Chemical & Engineering News (C&E News). He has provided C&E News two major stories dur- ing October that feature catalysis. In the October 2 issue he has a four page article entitled 'European Conference Mixes Ad- vances in Catalysis with Political Anxieties' that features news of the 2nd European Congress on Catalysis (EUROPACAT-II). In the October 23, 1995 issue of C&E NEWS he provides an article entitled 'New Gov- ernment in Poland Divides Responsibility

for Research and Development.' This latter article describes views expressed by Pro- fessor J. Haber and emphasizes catalysis research in Professor Haber's laboratory as well as in other laboratories in Poland.

As a writer, Haggin exhibits his unique talent in combining the humanistic, scien- tific and technical aspects of catalysis. He does this admirably in his October 2 article by showing the personal views of a pioneer in catalysis, Haldor Topsoe, founder of the Danish chemical research and engineer- ing company Haldor Tops~e, and major themes of catalysis science since the 1930s. That Haldor Topsoe is a man of optimism is evident since the growth of his company clearly indicates that he listened when advised by Johannes Brensted that catalysis was "too complicated to deal with. You shouldn't waste your time on it," but continued to follow his vision. Moving to the 1950s, Topsoe notes that surface science brought the view that "...we could engineer catalysts from the bottom up, [but] this was optimistic." Listing a series of problems that currently perplexes Topsoe, Haggin writes that "Topsoe, how- ever, regards those difficulties as the best reason to launch a new era of catalysis." Topsee is quoted as stating that "Catalysis can provide the answers to the demands for new fuels, like reformulated gasolines. Catalysis can combine the resource man- agement for several industries such as chemicals and energy." We can hope that Tops~e's outstanding success will cause other industrial managements and politi- cians to heed Topsee's plea for a longer- term view of addressing the problems of Europe [and the World]. According to TopsJae, "We have to plan for decades and not only [for] the next quarter or the next election. It is necessary that we explain our

applied catalysis A: General Volume 137 No. 2 - - 11 April 1996