October 2003 Meeting Basolo Award Presentation

	Joint Meeting of the Northwestern University Department of Chemistry and the Chicago ACS Section

Speaker:	Professor Daryle H. Busch Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Chemistry Department The University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66049
Topic:	Ventures in the Design of Homogeneous Oxidation Catalyst Systems

Date:  Friday, October 24, 2003

Background information about the Basolo Award

NOTE: The Basolo Medal Lecture will be held at 4:30 P.M. - 5:45 P.M. at Northwestern University.
--- The Medalist Lecture is open to the public and admission is free to all those wishing to attend. ---

Northwestern University
Technological Institute
2145 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL
Lecture Room 3

Abstract:     The molecular design of oxidation catalysts for application under severe conditions proceeds toward multiple goals relating to catalyst efficacy, affordability, and, because of environmental considerations, acceptability.   Our focus is on efficacy for here the considerations are essentially all chemical.   They include catalyst activity-the catalyst must operate at an energy level adequate to accomplish the desired oxidation process; catalyst selectivity-an exciting challenge is to design catalysts that will partially oxidize preferred substrates, yielding preferred products, and durability-catalysts must not be destroyed by the severe reaction environment during the reaction time.   The focus in America on green chemistry leads those involved in such molecular design to reduce or eliminate hazardous substances and waste in their new processes.   Major consideration is therefore given to performing oxidations with the environmentally most friendly terminal oxidants, which we deem to be O2 and H2O2, and solvents, in this case water and dense phases of CO2.   Two programs will be described. The first mission is to design a bleach enhancer for the laundry industry.   This seemingly pedestrian venture requires a selective catalyst that will use O2 or H2O2 in hot aqueous media above pH 10 to oxidize stains from surfaces without destroying the dyes or pigments on those surfaces.   The two greatest challenges are oxidative selectivity and catalyst durability, and the manner in which these have been met is described, along with the principles that are involved.   The second mission explores the broad area of homogeneous catalytic oxidations in dense phases of CO2 as solvent media, again with O2 and H2O2 as terminal oxidants.   In addition to selectivity and catalyst durability, solubility and reactivity are challenges in these new media.   Exciting advances have been made by making use of binary and ternary CO2 phases that display a synergism due to the mixed solvents. Potential broad impacts of these and similar studies will be discussed. Biography:     Daryle H. Busch is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kansas, a position he has occupied since August of 1988.   Previously he was a faculty member at The Ohio State University where he rose through the ranks from Assistant Professor (1954) to Presidential Professor (1987).   His research in basic transition metal coordination chemistry fathered modern macrocyclic ligand chemistry and created the molecular template effect.   He was among the founders of the subject of ligand reactions and an early researcher and proponent of bioinorganic chemistry.   He first described the phenomenon called preorganization in 1970.   His research is presently focused on green homogeneous catalysis, bioinorganic chemistry, and orderly molecular entanglements, a part of supramolecular and nanochemistry.   Throughout his research career Busch has worked closely with industry and holds 11 patents joint with five major industrial companies, and 2 universities.   He received a B.A. from Southern Illinois University in 1951 and M.S. and Ph.D.degrees from the University of Illinois in 1952 and 1954.   The ACS Award for Distinguished Service in Inorganic Chemistry (1976), the ACS Award for Research in Inorganic Chemistry (1963), the John C. Bailar Medal of his alma mater, the University of Illinois (1978), the Dwyer Medal of the Royal Society of N.S.Wales, Australia (1978), and the Izatt-Christenson International Award for Macrocyclic Chemistry (1994)are among the recognitions of his research.   Busch has contributed to all aspects of university education, having taught thousands of undergraduates, guided some 200 Ph.D. and postdoc researchers.   In addition to the predominant research articles in his approximately 400 publications, Dr. Busch has written three text books, and numerous book chapters, articles, and reviews.   His teaching has been recognized by the University of Kansas= Louis Byrd Graduate Educator Award (1996) and an Ohio State University Alumni Teaching Award (1980).   His service to the American Chemical Society includes the Chairs of the Local Sections in Columbus, Ohio, and the University of Kansas, General Chair of the 3rd Central Regional Meeting, Chair of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, and of its Bioinorganic Subdivision, Advisory Boards of the Office of Graduate Education and the Green Chemistry Institute and various committee assignments, including chairing the Society Committee on Education.   He was Chair of the Chemistry Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and served the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry as Chair of the Commission on Inorganic Nomenclature and as Secretary of the Inorganic Chemistry Division Committee.   He served in the Presidential Succession and on the Board of Directors of the American Chemical Society, and was President of the ACS in 2000.   Professor Busch remains active in teaching, research and institutional development.