At theUniversity of Florida, Grubbs initially intended to study agriculture chemistry.[13] However, he was convinced by professorMerle A. Battiste to switch to organic chemistry.[14] Working with Battiste, he became interested in how chemical reactions occur.[11] He received hisB.S. in 1963 andM.S. in 1965 from the University of Florida.[14][15]
In 1969, Grubbs was appointed to the faculty ofMichigan State University, where he began his work on olefin metathesis. Harold Hart, Gerasimos J. Karabatsos, Gene LeGoff, Don Farnum, Bill Reusch and Pete Wagner served as his early mentors at MSU.[11] Grubbs was an assistant professor from 1969 to 1973, and an associate professor from 1973 to 1978.[16] He received aSloan Fellowship for 1974–1976.[17] In 1975, he went to theMax Planck Institute for Coal Research inMülheim, Germany, on a fellowship from theAlexander von Humboldt Foundation.[18]
In 1978, Grubbs moved toCalifornia Institute of Technology as a professor of chemistry. As of 1990 he became the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry.[19][20]
Both first and second generation Grubbs catalysts were commercially available from Materia, a startup company that Grubbs co-founded with Mike Giardello inPasadena, California, in 1998.[23][24][25] Materia has been able to obtain exclusive rights to manufacture many of the known olefin catalysts.[26] Under Giardello, Materia was able to sell their catalysts throughSigma-Aldrich's chemicals catalogue. Sigma-Aldrich became their exclusive worldwide provider.[24][27] In 2008, Materia partnered withCargill to form Elevance Renewable Sciences to produce specialty chemicals from renewable oils,[28] includingbiofuels.[29] In 2017, Materia sold its catalyst business toUmicore.[30] In 2021, Materia was acquired byExxonMobil.[31]
Grubbs's main research interests were inorganometallic chemistry andsynthetic chemistry, particularly the development of novel catalysts forolefin metathesis. In olefin metathesis, a catalyst is used to break the bonds of carbon molecules, which can then re-form to create chemical bonds in new ways, producing new compounds with unique properties.[14][34] The basic technique can be used for creation of polymers, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals[35] and has broad applications in areas includingpharmaceuticals,biotechnology, agriculture, and plastics.[14]
The Grubbs group successfully polymerized the 7-oxo norbornene derivative usingruthenium trichloride, osmium trichloride as well as tungsten alkylidenes.[41] They identified a Ru(II) carbene as an effective metal center and in 1992 published the first well-defined, ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalyst, (PPh3)2Cl2Ru=CHCH=CPh2.[39]
Metathesis Grubbs 1992
The correspondingtricyclohexylphosphine complex (PCy3)2Cl2Ru=CHCH=CPh2 was also shown to be active.[42] This work culminated in the now commercially available first-generationGrubbs catalyst in 1995.[23][43][44] Second generation catalysts were developed as well.[45][46]
Ruthenium is stable in air and has higher selectivity and lower reactivity thanmolybdenum, the most promising of the previously discovered catalysts. In addition, Grubbs took agreen chemistry approach to catalysis that reduced the potential to create hazardous waste. TheGrubbs catalyst has become a standard for general metathesis applications in ordinary laboratories.[7][36][45]
By controlling the catalyst used, it became possible to synthesize polymers with specialized structures and functional capabilities, including cyclic olefins, alternating copolymers, and multiblock copolymers.[34] Using catalysts allows chemists to speed up chemical transformations and to lower the cost of what were previously complicated multi-step industrial processes.[24]
While at Columbia University, Grubbs also met his future wife, Helen O'Kane, a special-education teacher, with whom he had three children: Barney (born 1972), Brendan H. (born 1974) and Kathleen (Katy) (born 1977).[11][47][48]
Grubbs, Robert (2003).Handbook of Metathesis. Weinheim, Germany; Chichester, England: Wiley-VCH John Wiley distributor.ISBN978-3-527-30616-9.OCLC52485738.
^abGrubbs, Robert Howard (1968).I. Cyclebutadiene Derivatives II. Studies of Cyclooctatetraene Iron Tricarbonyl Complexes (PhD thesis). Columbia University.ProQuest302317287.(subscription required)
^abcdefg"Robert H. Grubbs – Biographical".The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005. NobelPrize.org. RetrievedApril 12, 2016.In some places, my birthplace is listed as Calvert City and in others Possum Trot. I was actually born between the two, so either one really is correct.
^Schrock, R. R.; Feldman, J.; Cannizzo, L. F.; Grubbs, R. H. (September 1987). "Ring-opening polymerization of norbornene by a living tungsten alkylidene complex".Macromolecules.20 (5):1169–1172.Bibcode:1987MaMol..20.1169S.doi:10.1021/ma00171a053.
^Schwab, Peter; France, Marcia B.; Ziller, Joseph W.; Grubbs, Robert H. (1995). "A Series of Well-Defined Metathesis Catalysts–Synthesis of [RuCl2(CHR')(PR3)2] and Its Reactions".Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl.34 (18):2039–2041.doi:10.1002/anie.199520391.
^"Robert H. Grubbs".American Academy of Arts & Sciences. November 18, 2021. RetrievedDecember 20, 2021.
^"Robert H. Grubbs".The Franklin Institute. January 10, 2014. RetrievedApril 14, 2016.
^"Herman F. Mark Award 2000".Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc. of the American Chemical Society. Archived fromthe original on March 15, 2016. RetrievedApril 14, 2016.
