Nikolay Nikolayevich SemyonovBorn 15 Apr 1896; died 25 Sep 1986 at age 90.Russian physical chemist who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Sir Cyril Hinshelwood for “their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions.” He was the first Soviet scientist to receive a Nobel Prize. In 1926, with his coworkers, Semyonov first discovered branched-chain reactions in the oxidation of phosphorus. Whereas his intent for the investigation began as a study of the light output of that reaction, he was surprised to find there is a critical pressure of oxygen gas below which no activity would take place. The theoretical explanations he developed for how a process can initiate by a chain mechanism are also applicable in a wide range of chemical reactions, including oxidation, cracking, halogenation, polymerization and explosions. The chain mechanism creates an avalanche of interactions.«[Name also written as Nikolai Nikolaevic Semenov. Birthdate 3 Apr 1896 by old style calendar.] |
