PERKIN MEDAL
Discoverers of Polypropylene Share Prize The original idea was to oligomerize olefins such as ethylene or propylene to high-performance gasoline alkylates. But on the day in 1951 when J. Paul Hogan and Robert L. Banks watched propylene turn into a white, taffylike solid in a flask, they knew they had a more important discovery on their hands. The Phillips Petroleum chemists had made the first crystalline polypropylene. Within weeks, the two followed up with ethylene, and the result was the first low-pressure process for high-density polyethylene. For these outstanding contributions to applied chemistry, Hogan and Banks will receive the 1987 Perkin Medal at a dinner in their honor this week. The American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry awards this medal yearly to scientists chosen jointly by the Society of Chemical Industry, American Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemists, Société de Chimie Industrielle (American Section), American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Electrochemical Society. This marks the first time that the award has been made to more than one person.
Robert L. Banks 30
March 9, 1987 C&EN
Hogan was born in 1919 in Lowes, Ky. After getting a B.S. in chemistry from Murray State College, Murray, Ky., in 1942, he taught high school chemistry and physics during the next academic year. In 1943-44, he was a physics instructor at Oklahoma State University. In 1944, he joined Phillips as a chemist. The discoveries of 1951 and their follow-up led to a steady string of promotions at the company, from which he retired as senior research associate in 1985. Banks was born in 1921 in Piedmont, Mo. He received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at what is now the University of Missouri, Rolla, in 1944. After a short stint as process engineer at the Coop Refinery Association, in 1946 he joined Phillips as a chemist. At Phillips, he progressed to senior research associate and retired in 1985. Banks worked with Hogan for several years to develop their discoveries in polyolefins. But eventually Bank's research took him away from these materials, and in 1959 he discovered the olefin metathesis reaction. One such reaction is conversion of propylene to ethylene and 2-butene, a process used today to make ethylene in at least one Canadian polyolefins plant. The process also finds use in conversion of long-chain to medium-length olefins for detergent manufacture. Although the patent for the highdensity polyethylene process was issued without a hitch, Hogan and Banks had to wait 30 years to be recognized as the discoverers of polypropylene. Some half dozen companies filed for patents on the resin in 1953, the same year as Phillips. Among these was Montedison, whose resin was made by organic chemistry professor Giulio Natta, using a catalyst based on a formulation of organic chemistry professor Karl Ziegler of Heidelberg University. Ziegler and Natta shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for achievements in polymer research.
/. Paul Hogan The legal battles came to an end in 1982, when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the decision made in favor of Phillips. The company got the patent for polypropylene in 1983, opening the way to collection of royalties on all U.S. production. Coworkers attribute a fierce honesty and integrity to Hogan's strong Baptist beliefs. These traits became important to the company as Hogan advanced his laboratory discoveries and his ideas for technological change for Phillips through the years. Those around him could be sure that the views he expressed were completely selfless. Of Banks, colleagues say that he worked carefully with great attention to detail. They cite this care for being partly responsible for his discoveries with Hogan. Of the metathesis reaction, one of them says, "There were a lot of other companies experimenting in that area. They must have gotten the metathesis reaction, but they didn't see it. Only Bob Banks noticed somet h i n g g o i n g on a n d tracked it down." Stephen Stinson, New York
