Making gallium hydride

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The Gordon Research Conferences

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Making gallium hydride

Norman Greenwood Scientist

	Views	Duration
141. Work on inert gases	37	04:26
142. Introduction to my hydride work	36	00:48
143. Aluminium hydride	43	00:48
144. Boron hydride	52	02:04
145. Bob Parry's similar boron work	35	01:11
146. No publication restrictions on research at Newcastle	36	00:38
147. Other people's interest in hydrides	28	00:53
148. Harry Emeléus was the first to make decaborane	40	00:47
149. Motivation for working on gallium hydride	56	01:02
150. Making gallium hydride	44	00:56

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It turned out not to be so easy to make, and Allan Storr and Malcolm Wallbridge worked very hard on that area, and we got what we thought was very good evidence for it, and that work stood for quite a while, several decades in fact. But I think more recently, about five or 10 years ago, using some more modern techniques, Tony Downs, who’d been with me on the staff in Newcastle, had gone down to Oxford, and he continued that work down there, and many, many years later, as I say, I think he showed that probably our work was not quite what we’d thought it was, and that he’d got the real gallium hydride. But it was a very testing and interesting piece of work to do.

Norman Greenwood (1925-2012) was born in Australia and graduated from Melbourne University before going to Cambridge. His wide-ranging research in inorganic and structural chemistry made major advances in the chemistry of boron hydrides and other main-group element compounds. He also pioneered the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy to problems in chemistry. He was a prolific writer and inspirational lecturer on chemical and educational themes, and held numerous visiting professorships throughout the world.

Title: Making gallium hydride

Listeners: Brian Johnson

Professor Brian FG Johnson FRS, FRSE, FRS Chem, FAcad Eu, FAS. Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Edinburgh 1991-1995, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Cambridge 1995-2005, Master Fitzwilliam College Cambridge 1999-2005. Research interests include studies of transition metal carbonyls, organometallic chemistry, nano- particles and homogeneous catalysis. Professor Johnson is the author of over 1000 research articles and papers.

Tags: Newcastle University, Oxford University, Allan Storr, Malcolm Wallbridge, Anthony J Downs

Duration: 56 seconds

Date story recorded: May 2011

Date story went live: 25 November 2011