Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
5.
The 1960s: Chromatographic Takeover and Other Laboratory
Changes
The chemistry laboratory changed more between 1950 and 2000 than
from 1600 until 1950 (Prelog 1991, Streitwieser 1996). So much is
undeniable. Even though chromatography dates back to the turn of the
twentieth century (Twsett 1906) - equally significantly it was rediscover-
ed in the 1930s by Richard Kuhn and Edgar Lederer - it underwent a
blossoming during the second half of the twentieth century. A.J.P. Martin
and R.L.M. Synge devised paper chromatography (1943), due to penury
during World War II. Together with other chromatographic methods,
such as thin-layer, gas phase, and high-pressure liquid phase chromato-
graphy, paper chromatography rose to the ascendancy in laboratories
during the 1950s and 1960s. These chromatographic methods superseded
earlier separation techniques, such as fractional distillation, crystalliza-
tion, sublimation,
etc.
, because they were considerably more powerful,
could be automated, and required only miniscule amounts of material for
analytical purposes; in addition, they could be redirected to preparative
purposes.
Many of these chromatographic techniques became implemented in
simple-to-operate instruments. In the 50s, they benefited, just like NMR,
from the huge progress in electronics brought about by World War II;
and later on, from the invention of the transistor. These methods achiev-
ed a revolution in the separation and isolation of chemicals from mix-
tures. The time required for this truly preliminary stage in chemical re-
search was rather suddenly cut-down from weeks to hours. But, again
just like NMR, such progress was costly. It weighed on the budget of
chemical laboratories.
The chemical laboratory was radically transformed by the mid-
1960s.
13
In addition to NMR and chromatography, other molecular spec-
troscopies, which were then implemented in commercial instruments,
first and foremost mass spectrometry, also invaded the chemical labora-
tory (Morris 2002). The combination of chromatographic isolation and
13
A development that swept through the whole of chemistry like wildfire. It was not
confined to, say, organic chemistry. There is a contemporary testimony of the impact
on inorganic chemistry (Lewis & Nyholm 1961).
