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Robert H. Grubbs

1942–2021 · United States · Born 1940 or later

Nobel Chemistry 2005

American chemist whose robust ruthenium catalysts made olefin metathesis a practical, everyday reaction of organic and polymer synthesis.

Nobel-winning work

Grubbs designed ruthenium carbene catalysts — the “Grubbs catalysts” — that perform olefin metathesis, the breaking and re-forming of carbon–carbon double bonds, under mild conditions and in the presence of air and functional groups. Metathesis became a standard tool for pharmaceuticals, polymers and materials.

Fields

Organic chemistryPolymer chemistry

Related topics

Homogeneous catalysis (Ziegler–Natta, Grubbs)

A homogeneous catalyst moves through a closed sequence of elementary steps in the same phase as the substrate. Small changes in ligands, oxidation state or vacant sites can redirect an entire cycle and change selectivity.

ATRP, RAFT, living polymerization

Compare living anionic chain growth with controlled radical methods: ATRP uses reversible halogen-atom transfer, while RAFT uses reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer. Learn how activation, exchange, termination, and transfer shape molecular-weight control and polymer design.

Chemists in the same field

J. Fraser Stoddart (1942)K. Barry Sharpless (1941)Jean-Pierre Sauvage (1944)Richard R. Schrock (1945)Ryoji Noyori (1938)Roald Hoffmann (1937)