Walter Kaminsky
Walter Kaminsky ( born May 7, 1941 in Hamburg ) is a German chemist.
Life and work
Kaminsky was born in 1941 in Hamburg. He studied chemistry in 1962 at the University of Hamburg, where he received his doctorate in 1971 with a thesis on the reaction between bis ( cyclopentadienyl) zirconium dichloride and triethyl aluminum. This was followed by research in the field of pyrolysis of plastic waste and scrap tires, which was also the topic of his habilitation.
In 1979 he accepted a professorship at the University of Hamburg, where he took over the Institute for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry. In 2006 he became Professor Emeritus there.
A focus of research was the development of homogeneous catalytic systems based on metallocenes of titanium group with methylaluminoxane as a cocatalyst. 1977 discover Kaminsky and Hansjörg Sinn that methylaluminoxane in combination with titanocene dichloride highly active catalysts for olefin polymerization results. Published in 1982 Hans -Herbert Brintzinger (University of Konstanz) the preparation of chiral ansa- metallocenes. Through cooperation of Kaminsky and Brintzinger catalysts could be developed in the sequel, allow the stereoselective polymerization of propylene and higher α -olefins.
The research in the field of olefin polymerization delivered alongside highly reactive and easily accessible catalysts also provide insights into the ongoing reaction mechanisms. By modifying the symmetric properties of the metallocenes succeeded Kaminsky, among other things, specifically produce isotactic, syndiotactic or atactic polypropylene.
A second focus was the development of technical pyrolysis plants, the so-called Hamburger process for the recovery of raw materials for the chemical industry of plastic waste and biomass.
Awards and Affiliations
Walter Kaminsky has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Award for European Science of the Körber Foundation, the Alwin Mittasch medal for metallocene catalysts (together with Hans -Herbert Brintzinger and Hansjörg Sinn ), the Benjamin Franklin Medal and the Hermann Staudinger Prize 2003. He is an honorary member of the Royal Chemical Society and honorary professor at Zhejiang University in China.
He is a member of DECHEMA, the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians, the Association of German Engineers and the American Chemical Society. Since 2005 he is also a full member of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg.
He has published more than 400 articles and books. Kaminsky is the holder of 30 patents.
Literature (selection )
- Disposal of oil-bearing hazardous waste according to the Hamburg pyrolysis process. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin, 1990, ISBN 978-3-503-02897-9.
- Feedstock recycling and pyrolysis of waste plastics. Wiley, Chichester, 2006, ISBN 0-470-02152-7 (along with John Scheirs ).
- Organic metal catalysts for synthesis and polymerization. Recent results by Ziegler -Natta and metallocene investigations. Springer, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-540-65813-0.
- Olefin Polymerization. Selected Contributions from the Conference in Hamburg ( Germany), October 10-12 2005 ( Macromolecular Symposia ). Wiley -VCH, Weinheim 2006, ISBN 978-3-527-31742-4.
- " Living polymers " in Ziegler catalysts extreme productivity H. Sinn, W. Kaminsky, HJ Vollmer, R. Woldt, Angew. Chem, 1980, 92, 396