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Henry Taube
1915–2005 · United States, Canada · 20th century
Nobel Chemistry 1983
Canadian-born American chemist who revealed how electrons hop between metal complexes, defining inner- and outer-sphere transfer.
Nobel Prize work
Taube elucidated the mechanisms of electron transfer between metal complexes. Using isotope tracers, he distinguished outer-sphere transfer, where ligands stay attached, from inner-sphere transfer, where a bridging ligand carries the electron through a shared chemical bond. His work founded modern understanding of redox reactions in inorganic and biological systems.
Fields
Related topics
Crystal field theory, ligand field theory
Why do complexes with the same metal ion have different colours, magnetic moments and preferred shapes? The surrounding ligands split the energies of the metal d orbitals.
Electrode kinetics
How electrode potentials control electron-transfer rates: exchange current, Butler–Volmer and Tafel laws, and the Marcus picture of the barrier.