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Malcolm Green (chemist)

Malcolm Green FRS FRSC
Born	Malcolm Leslie Hodder Green (1936-04-16)16 April 1936[2]
Died	24 July 2020(2020-07-24) (aged 84)
Education	Denstone College
Alma mater	University of London (BSc Hons) University of Cambridge (MA) University of Oxford (MA) Imperial College London (PhD)
Known for	Agostic interaction Covalent bond classification method Green–Davies–Mingos rules[3]
Awards	Corday-Morgan Prize (1972) Tilden Prize (1982) FRS (1985) Stieglitz Lecture (1985) Davy Medal (1995)
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Oxford University of Cambridge
Thesis	A study of some transitional metal hydrides and olefin complexes (1958)
Doctoral advisor	Geoffrey Wilkinson
Doctoral students	F. Geoffrey N. Cloke, Vernon C. Gibson,[1] Gerard Parkin, Luet Lok Wong, Dermot O'Hare, Philip Mountford, Andrea Sella
Website	research.chem.ox.ac.uk/malcolm-green.aspx

Malcolm Leslie Hodder Green FRS FRSC^[4] (16 April 1936 – 24 July 2020)^[5] was Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He made many contributions to organometallic chemistry.^[6][2]

Born in Eastleigh, Hampshire, he was educated at Denstone College^[2] and received his Bachelor of Science degree from Acton Technical College (London University External Regulations) in 1956 and his PhD from Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1959 for research carried out under the supervision of Geoffrey Wilkinson.

After his PhD, Green undertook a postdoctoral research year with Wilkinson before moving to the University of Cambridge in 1960 as Assistant Lecturer and being appointed a FellowofCorpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1961.^[8] In 1963 he was appointed a Septcentenary FellowofInorganic ChemistryatBalliol College, Oxford and a Departmental Demonstrator at the University of Oxford. In 1965 he was made a Lecturer and he was also a Royal Society Senior Research Fellow in Oxford 1979–86. In 1989 he was appointed Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at Oxford and Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford. In 2004 he became an Emeritus Research Professor. He was a co-founder of the Oxford Catalysts Group plc in 2006.^[8]

Green held many visiting positions including: Visiting Professor, Ecole de Chimie and Institute des Substances Naturelles, Paris (1972), Alfred P. Sloan Visiting Professor, Harvard University (1975), Sherman Fairchild Visiting Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (1981), and Walter Hieber Gastprofessor, University of Munich, Germany (1991).

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Green's earliest publications described metal-hydride and metal-olefin complexes,^[9] themes that he pursued throughout his career. Many of his early contributions focused on the chemistry of molybdocene dihydride ((C₅H₅)₂MoH₂) and the related tungsten derivative. These compounds were shown to engage in many reactions related to C-H bond activation.^[10]

With Rooney, he was an active proponent of various mechanisms to explain stereochemistry in Ziegler–Natta polymerisation. He used metal vapour synthesis, especially for the preparation of early metal sandwich complexes. He and his students synthesised several examples of complexes exhibiting "agostic" bonds.^[10] The word was suggested to him by Jasper Griffin, professor of Classics at Balliol, whom Green asked for an appropriate Greek word to describe the close bonding phenomenon. This work would later lead to the so-called "modified Green-Rooney mechanism" for Ziegler–Natta catalysis, wherein agostic interactions guide the stereochemistry of the alkene insertion step. This proposal found wide acceptance. His work on metal carbide catalysts led to the corporate spin-off company Oxford Catalysts plc, which became Velocys.^[8]

Green along with Stephen G. Davies and Michael Mingos compiled a set of rules that summarise where nucleophilic additions will occur on pi ligands known as the Green–Davies–Mingos rules.^[3] His former doctoral students include Vernon C. Gibson.^[1]

Green developed the covalent bond classification (CBC) method in 1995 to describe the ligands and bonding in coordination and organometallic complexes.^[11][12]

Towards the end of his career Green's interests shifted to include studies of carbon nanotubes, developing methods to "uncap" (open) them,^[13] and investigating their filling with metals and with salts.

His numerous awards include:

• Single-walled carbon nanohorn

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