Giulio Natta has the singular honour of being the only Italian up to date to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. From 1901 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The award consists of a medal, a citation and a cash award. These are awarded to the recipients at a formal ceremony held on December 10, annually at Sweden, Stockholm. In 1963 Giulio Natta shared this prestigious award with Karl Zeigler.

Birth and academic career

Giulio Natta was born on February 26, 1903 in Imperia near Genoa, Italy. He was the son of a judge. In 1924 he graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan. In 1927 he passed the relevant exams, which entitled him to teach there. In 1933 he was appointed Full professor at Pavia University. In the same year he was also appointed as the Director of the Institute of General Chemistry at the same university. He stayed here till 1935. In 1935 he was appointed as Full Professor in Physical Chemistry at the University of Rome. He became Full Professor and Director of the Institute of Industrial Chemistry at the Polytechnic of Turin from 1936 to 1938. In his role as Director of Industrial Chemistry Natta developed new uses for the commercial synthesis of methanol, formaldehyde, butyraldehyde and succinic acid. In 1938 he returned to his alma mater and became Full Professor and Director of Polytechnic of Milan.

Research milestones

Giulio Natta began his career with a study of solids using x ray analysis and electron diffraction. He used these methods to study catalysts and the structure of a few high organic polymers. He began studying these polymers from 1934. His kinetic research on methanol synthesis, on selective hydrogenation of unsaturated organic compounds and on oxosynthesis led to a better understanding of these reactions. Thus Natta ‘s studies on catalysts lead to an improvement in the selectivity of catalysts.

In Italy in the year 1938 Professor Natta began studying the production of synthetic rubber. He focused his research on butadiene. He was the first chemist to accomplish the physical separation of butadiene from 1-butadiene using a new method of extractive distillation. In this year he also began his investigations on the polymerization of olefins and the kinetics of subsequent concurrent reactions.

In 1953 he was financed by a large Italian chemical company Montecatini. He was asked to extend the research conducted by Ziegler on organometallic catalysts to stereo specific polymerization. Ziegler was able to polymerize ethylene under ambient conditions using trialkyl aluminum and titanium chloride as catalysts. Guilio Natta went one step further. His work lead to the development of the Ziegler – Natta catalysts. He discovered new classes of polymers with sterically ordered structure, namely isotactic, syndiotactic and di-isotactic polymers. He also discovered linear non-branched olefinic polymers and copolymers with an atactic (sterically nonordered) structure.

These studies were carried out in the Montecini laboratories for future industrial applications. They led to the discovery of a thermoplastic material called isotactic polypropylene. In 1957 Montecini were the first to produce polypropylene in an industrial scale in their factory at Ferrara. They marketed this polymer successfully using the brand name Moplen as a plastic material, Meraklon as a synthetic fibre, Merakrin as a monofilament and Moplefan as a packing film.

Using X ray investigations Professor Natta also determined the exact arrangement of chains in the lattice of the new crystalline polymers he had discovered.

His later researches lead to the synthesis of completely new polymers. He achieved this using two methods. The first method was by polymerization of butadiene into cis 1,4 with a very high degree of steric purity. The second method was by copolymerisation of ethylene with other alpha olefins (polypropylene). This led to the development of extremely interesting materials like saturated synthetic rubbers. Unsaturated monomer units (terpolymers containing ethylene and propylene) were used to vulcanize the rubber. This is similar to how natural rubber is vulcanized. The processes for asymmetric synthesis allow the production of optically active macromolecules from optically inactive monomers. These are of great scientific importance due to their similarity to the natural biological processes.

Professor Natta also made other interesting discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry. He obtained important results from the synthesis of crystalline alternating copolymers of different couples of monomers and the synthesis of various sterically ordered polymers of non-hydrocarbon monomers.

Polypropylene- Natta’s major discovery

Italian chemist Giulio Natta and his assistant Paulo Chini discovered isotactic polypropylene in 1954. It is a polyolefin with a melting point of 170 degrees Celsius. It is obtained from propylene gas, a major by product of oil refining.

Its properties include good strength; excellent elastic recovery, good resilience and good stain resistance. It is also quite inexpensive and durable. There have been many improvements on polypropylene since its inception. Two of these are micro porous film and SMS.

Polypropylene is an important and versatile plastic. It is used in many different forms and applications through a range of manufacturing processes. Industrially it is used to make ropes, woven and non-woven fabrics and reinforcements. As a fibre it is used as the constituent in fabrics, upholstery and carpets. In everyday life it is used to make blow moulded containers such as bottles and jars for food, shampoos and other liquids. As injection moulded items it is used for making appliances, toys, car components, packaging containers and furniture. Natta’s polypropylene is particularly suitable for household wares, textile fibres and film.

Publications and patents

Professor Natta has published over 700 papers of which over 500 are about stereo regular polymers. These papers document his scientific and technical activities in several renowned journals.

The Nobel Prize

In 1963 Professor Giulio Natta was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Karl Zeigler. They were awarded the prize for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers.

Other awards and honours

Memberships

• In 1955 he became a national member of the Accademia dei Lincei. He is also a member of the Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere and of the Accademia delle Science in Turin.
  
  
• He had been a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences from 1958. In 1961 Professor Giulio Natta was made an honorary life member of the academy.
  
  
• In 1960 he was made honorary member of the Austrian Chemical Society.
  
  
• In 1962 he was made an honorary member of the Belgian Chemical Society. They also awarded him the STAS medal.
  
  
• In 1963 the Swiss Chemical Society made him an honorary member.
  
  In 1964 he became an associated foreign member of the Academie des Sciences de l’Institut de France. In the same year he also became a member of the National Academy of XL, Rome.
  
  
• In 1965 he became a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Paris.
  
  
• In 1966 he became an honorary member of the Industrial Chemical Society of Paris.
  
  
• In the same year he became a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences, Moscow (USSR).
  
  
• He was also the honorary president of the Italian Section of the Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE).

Medals

• In 1960 Professor Natta received a gold medal from the city of Milan. In 1961 he received a medal from the President of the Italian Republic (an honour reserved for those who gain merit in the fields of school, culture and art). In the same year he also received the first international gold medal of the synthetic rubber industry. In 1962 he received a gold medal from the Milan district. In 1963 he received a gold medal from the Society of Plastic Engineers New York. In the same year he also received the Perrin medal from the French Chemical Physical Society, the Lavoisier medal from the Chemical Society of France and the Perkin gold medal of the English Society of Dyers and Colourists.
  
  
• In 1964 he received the gold medal of the Union of Italian Chemists.
  
  
• In 1969 he received the gold medal “Lomonosov” from the Moscow Academy of Sciences.
  
  
• In 1971 he received the John Scott award from the Board of Directors of the City Trust of Philadelphia. In the same year he also received the Medal Leonardus Vincius Florentinus Doctor Ingenieurs of FIDIIS, Paris. In 1971 he was also honoured with the “Carl Dietrich Harries Plakette of the Deutsche Kautschuk Gesellschaft, Frankfurt, Main.

Honorary Degrees

• He was awarded an honorary degree in Pure Chemistry from the University of Turin.
  
  
• In 1963 he received an honorary degree from the Mainz University.
  
  In 1964 he received an honorary degree from the University of Genoa and also from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York.
  
  
• In 1965 he received an honorary degree from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
  
  
• In 1971 he received an honorary degree from ESPI, University of Paris.
  
  
• The Italian Chemical Society has instituted a Giulio Natta gold medal in his honour.

Giulio Natta and Karl Ziegler have also been honoured with a release of a Swedish stamp commemorating their discovery of stereo regular polymers.

Death

Professor Giulio Natta died on May 2. 1979 in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. His discovery of polypropylene has had such far-reaching consequences in the modern world that he will be remembered forever.