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Alan MacDiarmid

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox scientist Alan Graham MacDiarmid, ONZ FRS<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=frs/> (14 April 1927 – 7 February 2007) was a New Zealand-born American chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="OH">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="transcript">Template:Cite book</ref>

Early life and educationEdit

MacDiarmid was born in Masterton, New Zealand, as one of five children – three brothers and two sisters. His family was relatively poor, and the Great Depression made life difficult in Masterton, due to which his family shifted to Lower Hutt, a few miles from Wellington, New Zealand. At around age ten, he developed an interest in chemistry from one of his father's old textbooks, and he taught himself from this book and from library books.

MacDiarmid was educated at Hutt Valley High School and Victoria University of Wellington.<ref name="ab">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1943, MacDiarmid passed the University of New Zealand's University Entrance Exam and its Medical Preliminary Exam.<ref name="nz"> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref> He then took up a part-time job as a "lab boy" or janitor at Victoria University of Wellington during his studies for a BSc degree, which he completed in 1947.<ref name=nz/> He was then appointed demonstrator in the undergraduate laboratories.<ref name=nz/> After completing an MSc in chemistry from the same university, he worked as an assistant in its chemistry department.<ref name=ab/> It was here that he had his first publication in 1949, in the scientific journal Nature.<ref name=nz/> He graduated in 1951 with first class honours, and won a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He majored in inorganic chemistry, receiving his M.S. degree in 1952 and his PhD in 1953. He then won a Shell Graduate Scholarship, which enabled him to go to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he completed a second PhD in 1955.<ref name=ab/><ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>

Career and researchEdit

MacDiarmid worked in the School of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews in Scotland for a year as a member of the junior faculty. He then took a faculty position in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, where he became a full professor in 1964. MacDiarmid spent the greater part of his career on the chemistry faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked for 45 years.<ref name=ab/> The first twenty years of his research there focused on silicon chemistry.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He was appointed Blanchard Professor of Chemistry in 1988.<ref>"Chairs for Five SAS Faculty". Almanac (University of Pennsylvania newsletter), 35(1), 12 July 1988.</ref>

In 2002 MacDiarmid also joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Dallas.<ref name="nyt">Template:Cite news</ref>

Conductive polymersEdit

His best-known research was the discovery and development of conductive polymers—plastic materials that conduct electricity. He collaborated with the Japanese chemist Hideki Shirakawa and the American physicist Alan Heeger in this research and published the first results in 1977.<ref name="HMacSh">Template:Cite journal</ref> The three of them shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work.<ref>"The Long and Winding Road to the Nobel Prize for Alan MacDiarmid". Almanac (University of Pennsylvania newsletter), 47(8), 17 October 2000.</ref><ref>Sandy Smith, "Alan MacDiarmid". The Penn Current, 26 October 2000. Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Joan P. Capuzzi Giresi, "The Boy Chemist at 75." Pennsylvania Gazette, March 2002.</ref><ref name="nob">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery that plastics can, after certain modifications, be made electrically conductive.<ref name="NZ_Herald_10423031"/> The work progressed to yield important practical applications. Conductive plastics can be used for anti-static substances for photographic film and 'smart' windows that can exclude sunlight. Semi-conductive polymers have been applied in light-emitting diodes, solar cells and displays in mobile telephones. Future developments in molecular electronics are predicted to dramatically increase the speed while reducing the size of computers.Template:Citation needed

MacDiarmid also travelled around the world for speaking engagements that impressed upon listeners the value of globalising the effort of innovation in the 21st century. In one of his last courses, in 2001, MacDiarmid elected to lead a small seminar of incoming freshmen about his research activities. Overall, his name is on over 600 published papers and 20 patents.<ref name=nyt/>

Selected publicationsEdit

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  • Chiang, C.K.; Druy, M.A.; Gau, S.C.; Heeger, A.J.; Louis, E.J.; MacDiarmid, A.G.; Park, Y.W.; Shirakawa, H., "Synthesis of Highly Conducting Films of Derivatives of Polyacetylene, (CH)x," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 100, 1013 (1978).
  • Heeger, A. J.; MacDiarmid, A. G., Polyacetylene, (CH){sub x}, as an Emerging Material for Solar Cell Applications. Final Technical Report, March 19, 1979 – March 18, 1980, University of Pennsylvania (June 1980).
  • MacDiarmid, A. G., Energy Systems Based on Polyacetylene: Rechargeable Batteries and Schottky Barrier Solar Cells. Final Report, March 1, 1981 – February 29, 1984, University of Pennsylvania (February 1984).
  • The Workshop on Conductive Polymers: Final Report, U.S. Department of Energy Division of Materials Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory (October 1985).
  • Chiang, J.-C., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Polyaniline': Protonic Acid Doping of the Emeraldine Form to the Metallic Regime," Synth. Met., 13, 193 (1986).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Chiang, J.-C.; Richter, A.F.; Epstein, A.J., "Polyaniline: A New Concept in Conducting Polymers," Synth. Met., 18, 285 (1987).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G., Yang, L.S., Huang, W.-S., and Humphrey, B.D., "Polyaniline: Electrochemistry and Application to Rechargeable Batteries". Synth. Met., 18, 393 (1987).
  • Kaner, R.B.; MacDiarmid, A.G., "Plastics That Conduct Electricity," Scientific American, 106 (February 1988).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Epstein, A.J., " 'Synthetic Metals': A Novel Role for Organic Polymers," Macromol. Chem., 51, 11 (1991).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Epstein, A.J., "Science and Technology of Conducting Polymers," in Frontiers of Polymer Research, P.N. Prasad and J.K. Nigam, Eds., Plenum Press, New York, 1991, p. 259.
  • Wang, Z.H.; Li, C.; Scherr, E.M.; MacDiarmid, A.G.; Epstein, A.J., "Three Dimensionality of 'Metallic' States in Conducting Polymers: Polyaniline," Phys. Rev. Lett., 66, 1745 (1991).
  • MacDiarmid, A.J.; Epstein, A.J., "The Concept of Secondary Doping as Applied to Polyaniline," Synth. Met., 65, 103 (1994).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G., Zhou, Y., Feng, J., Furst, G.T., and Shedlow, A.M., "Isomers and Isomerization Processes in Poly-Anilines," Proc. ANTEC '99, Soc. Plastics Engr., 2, 1563 (1999).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G., Norris, I.D., Jones, J.W.E., El-Sherif, M.A., Yuan, J., Han, B. and Ko, F.K., "Polyaniline Based Chemical Transducers with Sub-micron Dimensions," Polymeric Mat. Sci. & Eng., 83, 544 (2000).
  • Norris, I.D., Shaker, M.M., Ko, F.K., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Electrostatic Fabrication of Ultrafine Conducting Fibers: Polyaniline/Polyethylene Oxide Blends," Synth. Met., 114, 2 (2000).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G., Jones, J.W.E., Norris, I.D., Gao, J., Johnson, J.A.T., Pinto, N.J., Hone, J., Han, B., Ko, F.K., Okuzaki, H., and Llaguno, M., "Electrostatically-Generated Nanofibers of Electronic Polymers," Synth. Met., 119, 27–30 (2001).
  • Shimano, J.Y., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Phase Segregation in Polyaniline: A Dynamic Block Copolymer," Synth. Met., 119, 365–366 (2001).
  • Wang, P.C., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Dependency of Properties of In Situ Deposited Polypyrrole Films on Dopant Anion and Substrate Surface," Synth. Met., 119, 267–268 (2001).
  • Hohnholz, D., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Line Patterning of Conducting Polymers: New Horizons for Inexpensive, Disposable Electronic Devices," Synth. Met., 121, 1327–1328 (2001).
  • Premvardhan, L., Peteanu, L.A., Wang, P.-C., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Electronic Properties of the Conducting Form of Polyaniline from Electroabsorption Measurements," Synth. Met., 116, 157–161 (2001).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G. "Twenty-five Years of Conducting Polymers". Chem. Comm., 1–4 (2003).
  • Tanner, D.B.; Doll, G.L.; Rao, A.M.; Eklund, P.C.; Arbuckle, G.A.; MacDiarmid, A.G. "Optical properties of potassium-doped polyacetylene". Synth. Met., 141, 75–79 (2004).
  • Hohnholz, D.; Okuzaki,H.; MacDiarmid, A.G. "Plastic electronic devices through line patterning of conducting polymers". Adv. Funct. Mater., 15, 51–56 (2005).
  • Venancio, E.C; Wang, P-C.; MacDiarmid, A.G. "The Azanes: A Class of Material Incorporating Nano/Micro Self-Assembled Hollow Spheres Obtained By Aqueous Oxidative Polymerization of Aniline". Synth. Met., 156, 357 (2006).
  • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Venancio, E.C. "Agrienergy (Agriculture/Energy): What Does the Future Hold?”. Experimental Biology and Medicine., 231, 1212 (2006).

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Awards and honoursEdit

MacDiarmid won numerous awards and honours including: Template:Div col

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Personal lifeEdit

Towards the end of his life, MacDiarmid was ill with myelodysplastic syndrome. In early February 2007 he was planning to travel back to New Zealand, when he fell down the stairs in his home in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia,<ref>"Nobel-Winner MacDiarmid Dies". Pennsylvania Gazette, March 2007.</ref> and died on 7 February 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill.

MacDiarmid's first wife, Marian Mathieu, who he had married in 1954,<ref name=nz/> died in 1990. He is survived by four children: Heather McConnell, Dawn Hazelett, Duncan MacDiarmid and Gail Williams, from their marriage and nine grandchildren: Dr. Sean McConnell, Dr. Ryan McConnell, Rebecca McConnell, Dr. Clayton Hazelett, Wesley Hazelett, Langston MacDiarmid, Aubree Williams, Austin Williams and George Williams. MacDiarmid was also survived by his second wife, Gayl Gentile, whom he married in 2005; she died in 2014.<ref name=nyt/>

MacDiarmid was a first cousin of New Zealand expatriate painter Douglas MacDiarmid. The year after Alan received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Douglas painted a portrait Template:Webarchive of his cousin for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

MacDiarmid was also active as a naturist and nudist, and considered himself a sun-worshipper and keen waterskier.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="NZ_Herald_10423031">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>My Nude Life Template:Webarchive</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Template:Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1976-2000 Template:2000 Nobel Prize winners Template:Order of New Zealand Template:FRS 2003 Template:Recipients of the Rutherford Medal Template:Authority control

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