He received the Nobel Prize for having invented polypropylene | Let’s get to know him better

Through the study of macromolecules and “polymer catalysts” Giulio Natta realized the potential of chemistry applied to plastic.

Giulio Natta was born in Porto Maurizio (I) on 26 February 1903 by Francesco Maria, magistrate and by Elena Crespi who worked for the education of Giulio at an early age. He graduated with great advancement at the age of 16 at the classical high school in Genoa, later specializing in mathematics.

In 1921 he enrolled in the faculty of industrial engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan where he was assistant to Professor Bruni at the general chemistry department. Always ahead of its time in 1924, he graduated at the age of 21.

Then in 1925 he accepted a scholarship in Freiburg, Germany, at Professor Seemann’s laboratory, dealing with macromolecules. It is here that natta realized the importance and potential of the macromolecules that he continued to study on his return to Milan studying the crystalline structure of polymers.

Between 1925 and 1932 he was professor of chemistry at the Milan Polytechnic and in 1933 he won the competition to become professor of general chemistry at the University of Pavia and in 1935 he moved to the La Sapienza University of Rome and in 1937 to the Polytechnic of Turin.

The following year he returned to the Milan Polytechnic which he left after 35 years in 1973. During this long career Natta was able to experiment with numerous studies such as the production of Butadiene, he collaborated with the Montecatini firm dedicating himself almost exclusively to industrial chemistry.

From 1952 Natta began to take an interest in the discoveries of Karl Ziegler who succeeded in synthesizing linear polyethylene in 1953, while the following year Natta succeeded in producing the first polypropylene samples.

At this point, Montecatini sponsored the collaboration between the two scientists, leading to the creation of an international laboratory that involved many scholars who led to the discovery of isotactic polymers, registered under the trade name of Moplen .

The discovery of the Ziengler-Natta catalysts yielded to both of them the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1963.

But what exactly did the two scientists discover enough to win the Nobel Prize?

In 1953 Karl Ziegler discovered that a mixture of TiCl4 and AlEt3 (aluminum triethyl) catalyzed the polymerization of ethylene in polyethylene. Giulio Natta discovered that this catalyst was not usable for the production of polypropylene polymers, in fact, with this catalyst only oligomers of high propylene content were obtained.

In 1954 Natta and Ziegler discovered a new recipe of Dietil Aluminum Chloride and DEAC which gave a high yield of isotactic polypropylene . At this point Montecatini began industrial production with considerable commercial success.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.