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The help I received within Mössbauer spectroscopy

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New research opportunities with Mössbauer spectroscopy
Norman Greenwood Scientist
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So it’s like inventing NMR spectroscopy, or infra-red spectroscopy, or quadrupole resonance spectroscopy. Mössbauer spectroscopy was a new one. Well, I thought that was terrific. I had been interested in solid state chemistry. I could immediately think of many problems in solid state chemistry, particularly mixed valence compounds, where you couldn’t work out the valence from chemical ways, Mössbauer would tell you there’s some iron in 2+ state, some iron in 3+ state, some of the iron atoms are magnetic, others are in centrosymmetrical environment. And enormous amount of new range of studying defects in solids, migrations in solids, and the structure of co-ordination compounds. So willy-nilly, although I was a main group element chemist, I found that I was getting interested in co-ordination compounds.

That is the story of how I got interested. It says the importance of Gordon Conferences and how, by collaboration in this way, one can get into a new field.

Norman Greenwood (1925-2012) was born in Australia and graduated from Melbourne University before going to Cambridge. His wide-ranging research in inorganic and structural chemistry made major advances in the chemistry of boron hydrides and other main-group element compounds. He also pioneered the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy to problems in chemistry. He was a prolific writer and inspirational lecturer on chemical and educational themes, and held numerous visiting professorships throughout the world.

Listeners: Brian Johnson

Professor Brian FG Johnson FRS, FRSE, FRS Chem, FAcad Eu, FAS. Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Edinburgh 1991-1995, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Cambridge 1995-2005, Master Fitzwilliam College Cambridge 1999-2005. Research interests include studies of transition metal carbonyls, organometallic chemistry, nano- particles and homogeneous catalysis. Professor Johnson is the author of over 1000 research articles and papers.

Tags: Gordon Research Conferences, Mössbauer spectroscopy, Rudolf Mössbauer

Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds

Date story recorded: May 2011

Date story went live: 25 November 2011