In memory of the inventor of ammonia synthesis
On August 28th. Carl Bosch, a prominent chemist from Germany, would have turned 150 years old.
Bosch, born in Cologne in 1874, revolutionized what is now the world’s largest industrial process – catalytic ammonia synthesis and thus fertilizer production. The latter has enabled the population explosion of the last hundred years – including me, the author 😉. In 1931, Bosch received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contribution to the development of the Haber-Bosch process. But every silver lining has a cloud – ammonia synthesis facilitated industrial explosives production in the German Reich, thus prolonging the First World War. Furthermore, the name of the Cologne chemist is forever linked with the poison gas developer Fritz Haber, as both of them jointly developed the “Haber-Bosch process” before the First World War.
The Max Planck Society operates the famous “Fritz Haber Institute for Catalysis” in Berlin – around 1990 I personally witnessed the critical debate about the name of this institution by the institute director Prof. Ertl – himself later a Nobel laureate. Yes, we all bear responsibility for our actions.
Dr. Julius Nickl jun.
#catalysts #adsorption #catalysis #haberbosch
Image source: Archive of the Max Planck Society, Berlin, VI. Dept., Rep. 1, Carl Bosch, ca. 1940
