Heck, Richard Fred (1931-2015), an American chemist, shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of an efficient way to bond two carbon atoms together. Such bonds can be used to assemble large and complex organic (carbon-based) molecules. Heck shared the Nobel Prize with the Japanese chemists Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, who refined this work.
To produce many organic chemicals in a lab, chemists must bond two or more carbon atoms together. But such bonding can be difficult because carbon atoms are generally stable. Thus, they do not react readily with one another. In addition, large organic molecules may contain many carbon atoms. Getting two specific carbon atoms to bond can be a difficult and inefficient task.
In 1968, several papers by Heck were published. They explained his use of the metal palladium as a catalyst in producing specific carbon-carbon bonds. A catalyst is a substance that increases the efficiency or speed of a chemical reaction. In it, palladium is mixed with two different organic molecules. A single palladium atom bonds with a specific carbon atom on each molecule. This short-lived bond brings the two carbon atoms close together. The two carbon atoms then release the palladium atom and bond to each other, connecting the molecules into one larger molecule. Heck further refined the reaction over many years. Eventually, this technique became known as the Heck reaction. His discovery has led to the production of hundreds of new chemicals, including many pharmaceuticals and synthetic materials.
Heck was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Aug. 15, 1931. In 1952, he completed his B.S. degree at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1954, he received a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from UCLA. He then conducted research in Switzerland and at UCLA. In 1957, he took a position with the Hercules Corporation, a chemical manufacturer in Wilmington, Delaware. He later moved to the University of Delaware in 1971. He remained there until his retirement in 1989. Heck died on Oct. 10, 2015.
See also Negishi, Ei-ichi ; Suzuki, Akira .
