Nobel Prize Winner Lipscomb Speaks on Borane Discoveries

William M. Lipscomb Jr., Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, spoke to a packed Science Center audience of 400 Saturday on his Nobel Prize-winning research in borane chemistry.

"In 1912 only six boranes were known--all unstable and toxic," Lipscomb said. "Today their number has been increased to over one thousand including some with very unusual structures," he added.

No simple explanation of complicated borane formulas existed until his research, Lipscomb said.

By describing the complex structures of polyhedral boranes, Lipscomb opened up the huge field of borane chemistry.

Boron, found next to carbon on the periodic chart of elements, has unusual binding qualities which could have new technological uses, Lipscomb said.

Japanese brain surgeons have performed experimental operations using radioactive borane compounds in cancer therapy, Lipscomb said. The boranes have proved especially effective in treating brain tumors, he said.

The borane discoveries have also led to advancements in color photography and the development of a new synthetic rubber material that "shows a constant viscosity over a particularly wide range of temperatures," Lipscomb said.

Speaking informally in a pin-striped suit with a "Kentucky Colonel" tie, Lipscomb flavored his lecture with personal anecdotes about his laboratory work and his trip to Sweden to receive his Nobel prize.

Lipscomb said that studies done by Linus Pauling, a double Nobel prize-winner, first interested him in borane chemistry because "everything he said was wrong," but added that all early theories about borane structures were simplistic and incorrect.