science · 23 January 1929 · 95 years ago
birth
Born 23 Jan 1929.
German-Canadian chemist and educator who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1986 (with Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee) for contributions to the “development of a new field of research in chemistry - reaction dynamics.” Polanyi was recognised his study of infrared chemiluminescence. In experiments on the reaction of atomic hydrogen and molecular chlorine he discovered the emission of a faint infrared light (chemiluminescence), which provided quantitative information on the vibrational and rotational energy released in chemical reactions. In 1960, he published a paper suggesting that the products of the hydrogen-chlorine reaction (and similar reactions) would act as a suitable medium for a chemical laser.
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