Ronald James Gillespie

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Background of Dr Ronald James Gillespie

Name: Ronald James Gillespie
Birthdate: August 21,1924
Birthplace: London, England
Title: Professor Emeritus
Workplace: Department of Chemistry, McMaster University,Ontario,Canada
Status: Retired
Education:

BSc. University College London, 1945

PhD. University College London, 1949

DSc. University College London, 1957

CHILDHOOD

Figure 1: Ronald Gillespie in his childhood (Source: http://ronaldgillespie.weebly.com/)

Gillespie comes from poor family. Despite so, he is a hardworking and excellent student. At the age of 11, Gillespie received scholarship to the local grammar school. During high school, Gillespie was inspired by his chemistry teacher, Mr. George Cast. Mr. Cast always make chemistry seem to be more exciting compared to textbook by doing lab experiments with his students. Ronald Gillespie specialized in chemistry, physics, and pure and applied mathematics, but did particularly well in chemistry. Gillespie left school in 1942.

UNIVERSITY LIFE

He was awarded a bursary to do a special two year wartime degree at University College London.

During second year, he began to join research group and pursue his studies in sulfuric acid, taking his research in a new innovative direction. This led to the quest to discover other super acid systems of even greater acidity. In 1949,he was already appointed as an assistant lecturer before awarded his Ph.D by University College London. In 1953 Gillespie was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship. Gillespie moved to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1958. The offer from McMaster double his salary and gave him the chance at research funding from the National Research Council of Canada.

WORKING EXPERIENCE

Dr. Ronald J Gillespie had hold numerous faculty positions and are so experienced. The list of working experience can be seen below. (Adapted from: http://ronaldjg.weebly.com/education-and-career.html)

1948 - 1950: Assistant Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University College London.

1950 – 1958: Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University College London.

1958 – 1960: Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

1960 – 1989: Professor, Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

1962 – 1965: Chairman Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

1989 : Present Emeritus Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Figure 3: McMaster University where Gillespie work and continue his research. (Source: wikimedia.org)

AWARDS

Gillespie recieved many awards for his contribution. Below is the award received according to year. (Adapted from: http://rjgillespie.weebly.com/awards-and-achievements.html)

1953: Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry
1960: Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada
1965: Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
1966: Noranda Award (Chemical Institute of Canada),
1967: Canadian Centennial Medal,
1976: Union Carbide Award (Chemical Institute of Canada) for Chemical Education,
1977: Silver Jubilee Medal,
1977: Chemical Institute of Canada Medal,
1977: Fellow of the Royal Society, London,
1983: Tory Medal (Royal Society of Canada)
2007: Order Of Canada

According to Brian McCarry, chair of the Department of Chemistry, Order of Canada recognizes Ron Gillespie's pioneering research in main-group inorganic chemistry, particularly in the areas of fluorine chemistry, super acid media and concepts of chemical bonding. In addition to his research, Gillespie is also claimed to be popular for his talent as lecturer and educator.

"Dr. Gillespie has made a tremendous impact on science and the Faculty of Science continues to benefit from his contributions and influence in teaching and research within the field of chemistry," said John Capone, dean of the Faculty of Science. "We are proud of him and his accomplishments and are delighted with his appointment to the Order of Canada."(Source: http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/)

Figure 4: Order of Canada is given to those who make a major difference to Canada through lifelong contributions . (Source: wp.rac.ca)

PUBLICATION

Dr. Ronald J. Gillespie published some books and journal articles. (Source:ttp://www.chemistry.mcmaster.ca/gillespie/)

1. Molecular Geometry, Van Nostrand Reinhold, London, 1972, 226 pages.

German translation: Verlag Chemie 1975

Russian translation: MIR 1975

2. Chemistry, with D.A. Humphreys, N.C. Baird and E.A. Robinson

Allyn and Bacon, 1986, 895 pages. 2nd Edition, 1989, 1132 pages

3. The VSEPR Model of Molecular Geometry (Figure 5) with I. Hargittai Allyn and Bacon, 1991

Russian translation: MIR 1992

Italian translation Zanichelli 1994

Figure 5: The VSEPR Model of Molecular Geometry (Source:http://ronaldjg.weebly.com/)

4. Atoms, Molecules and Reactions: An Introduction to Chemistry (Figure 6) with D.A. Humphreys, E.A. Robinson and D.R. Eaton,

Prentice Hall, 1994, 750 pages.

Figure 6: Atoms, Molecules and Reactions: An Introduction to Chemistry (Source:http://ronaldjg.weebly.com/)

A new book is to be published by Oxford University Press in 2001:

5. The Chemical Bond and Molecular Geometry: from Lewis to Electron Densities.

by Ronald J. Gillespie and Paul L. A. Popelier

Journal Articles

Gillespie has over 370 articles in: The Journal of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Inorganic Chemistry, The Canadian Journal of Chemistry, The journal of the Chemical Society, The Journal of Chemical Education, and many others.

SUPERACID

Superacid is acid with acidity greater than that of 100% pure sulfuric acid. It is a medium with chemical potential of proton is higher than in pure sulfuric acid. Strong superacids can be prepared by combining strong Lewis acid and a strong Brønsted acid.

Professor Gillespie's investigations into superacid media began with his Ph.D. research under the supervision of C.K. Ingold at London University. He first discovered superacid when he wants to demonstrate the formation of the nitronium ion, NO2+, upon dissolution of nitric acid in sulfuric acid.

Video 2: Superacids are much stronger than sulfuric acid.(Source: youtube.com)

Example of superacids are Fluoroantimonic acid, (H2FSbF6) which is made by combining hydrogen fluoride (HF) antimony pentafluoride (SbF₅). Fluoroantimonic acid is 10¹⁶ times stronger than 100% sulfuric acid. The shape of fluoroantimonic acid is shown in figure 9.

Figure 9: Molecular geometry of Fluoroantimonic acid. (Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroantimonic_acid)

REASONS CONTRIBUTION IS CRUCIAL

Superacid has a great potential applications in fuel cell technology, chemical and petroleum industries. Development of superacid is important for the generation. Superacids able to break hydrocarbons into positively charged hydrocarbon cations or also know as carbocations. This able the hydrocarbon to be transform into another useful form, like plastic while giving out carbocations as intermediates. Development of superacids also leads to production of non-metallic elements in the form of polyatomic cations which will be discussed next.

MODIFICATION ON THE CONTRIBUTION

In 1960, George Olah has developed the Magic Acid. Magic acid is a superacid with mixture of fluorosulfuric acid (HSO3F) and antimony pentafluoride (SbF₅). Magic acid was discovered after a Christmas party held by the group of Professor George Olah, when a student found that a left-over candle dissolved completely in a magic acid solution.Hydrocarbon is poor proton acceptor but it dissolved in extreme acidity of magic acid. Professor Olah used this superacid in his innovative research of carbocation chemistry, and became the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994.

Figure 10: George A. Olah, chemist that was born in Budapest, Hungary. (Source: http://www.nobelprize.org/)

IS IT WIDELY ACCEPTED?

When Gillespie first discover the acid, they proposed to call these solutions "superacid solutions." Their proposal was, however, not further followed up or used until the 1960s, when Olah's studies of obtaining stable solutions of highly electron-deficient ions, particularly carbocations, focused interest on very high-acidity nonaqueous systems. Subsequently, Gillespie proposed an arbitrary. Since then widely accepted definition of superacids are any acid system that is stronger than 100% sulfuric acid.

Now, superacids is widely accepted as it brings a lot of advantages. One of the example; in petrochemistry, superacidic media are used as catalysts. Typical catalysts are sulfated oxides of titanium and zirconium. The solid acids are used for alkylating benzene with ethylene and propylene as well as difficultacylations.

In addition, superacid can also use for daily or periodical removal of milk stone calcareous residues in milking plants, cooling tanks and pipes. Its use is also specific for beer scale removal from tanks, capacitors, kegs, automatic washing and dosing plants. it can treated surface like floors and tile walls, epoxy resin surfaces, stainless steel surfaces and pipes, stainless steel plants, and stainless steel grills.

Figure 11: Superacid has many commercial uses especially in the industry fields. (Source: http://www.maber.com/products/0099-superacid.html)

FUTURE CHEMISTRY

In the future, superacids should be used widely in catalytic application as gives lot of advantages like less by-products and lower the reaction temperature. Modification of superacids are on going and hopefully there are a lot application of superacids in the next few years.