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2004 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Award Medal
Will be presented to
Wilson Greatbatch
June 1, 2004
The Marriott Buffalo-Niagara
1340 Millersport Hwy.
Amherst, New York

The Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society Invites you to be present at The Seventy-Fourth Presentation of the Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal to Wilson Greatbatch on Tuesday evening, the First of June Two Thousand Four

Cash Bar at 6 o'Clock Dinner at 7 o'clock
Presentation to follow Dinner

Formal Dress Optional

Dinner Selection:
London Broil
Atlantic Salmon

Cost $38.00 per person

Please call Patty Shelley 716-888-2340 with your reservation and dinner selection.

The Schoellkopf Medal is the oldest award of the American Chemical Society given by a local section. The Jury for the Schoellkopf Award of the Western New York (WNY) Local Section of the ACS selected Wilson Greatbatch, from Greatbatch Enterprises, as The 2004 Schoellkopf Medal recipient. Mr. Greatbatch is a luminary in Western New York, recognized internationally, and founder of Wilson Greatbatch Technologies, Inc, in Clarence, NY. In making the selection for the 2004 Schoellkopf Medal, the jury cited Mr. Greatbatch for his invention of the implantable pacemaker and the development of the lithium/iodine battery system to power it, impacting and enabling worldwide an improved quality of life for millions of individuals with heart disease. Wilson Greatbatch was born in 1919 in Buffalo, NY, receiving his primary education at public schools in West Seneca, New York. After military service, he attended Cornell University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1950. In 1957, he received a Master degree in Electrical Engineering in 1957 from the now University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. He has also been awarded honoris causa degrees at Houghton College (D.Sc., 1971), University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (D.Eng., 1984) Clarkson University (D.Sc., 1987), Roberts Westleyan College (D.Sc., 1988), and D'Youville College (D.Sc., 2002). Greatbatch initiated his biomedical engineering career at Cornell University working in the Animal Behavior Farm developing instrumentation for recording cardiovascular and respiratory parameters on experimental animals. He then served as a Project Engineer in the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory for a year before joining the University at Buffalo as assistant professor of electrical engineering from 1953 to 1957. Mr. Greatbatch left University at Buffalo and became a division manager for Taber Instrument Corporation, North Tonawonda, N.Y. He invented and patented the first successful implantable cardiac pacemaker in 1958. In 1960 he founded Wilson Greatbatch Incorporated. Throughout the 1960's, he improved the design of the implantable pacemaker and started his own battery manufacturing company, Wilson Greatbatch Ltd., to further improve the power source of the device. He licensed the lithium-iodine battery technology and developed it to become the international standard power source for implantable pacemakers, extending the life of the pacemaker from 2 years to 10 years. His invention and battery technology have saved and improved the lives of millions of people throughout the world. His invention has been one of the greatest contributions to society of the 20th century.

Wilson Greatbatch holds over 300 US and foreign patents. For his accomplishments, he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Medal of Technology, presented by the President of the United States (1990), The National Academy of Engineering's Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Award (2001) and the Pioneers of Science Award by the Hauptman-Woodward Institute (2002). He has been inducted in The National Inventors Hall of Fame, The National Academy of Engineering, and The National Aerospace Hall of Fame. He has been member of various professional associations, such as The National Academy of Engineering(NAE), The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The American College of Cardiology, The Royal Society of Health (UK), The Electrochemical Society (ECS), just to mention a few.

Indeed, Mr. Greatbatch's contribution to society with his inventions has been immense, contributing at the same time to the economical development of WNY, as the vast majority of the pacemakers throughout the world use batteries that are built or licensed by the company he founded, now known as Wilson Greatbatch Technologies, Inc. The company is still based in WNY, with $200M in sales and over 1,000 employers. He has also established the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Foundation to aid schools and other causes. Mr. Greatbatch retired from Wilson Greatbatch Technologies, Inc. in 1985, and pursues other research avenues. He leads Greatbatch Enterprises Corporation (GEC), which is a Research and Development company that designing and developing new devices for the medical industry, in addition to provide new sources for electrical energy. His personal philosophy, as stated on the GEC website is "Don't fear failure and don't crave success. Just immerse yourself in the problem and work hard. The true reward is not in the results, but in the doing."

Honoring his great contribution to society, based in the WNY area, the ACS-WNY proudly presents the 2004 Schoellkopf Medal to Mr. Wilson Greatbatch.

Officers and Staff:

EDITORAL

Dear Reader,

Another academic year is drawing to a close. We've honored our excellent local academics at our Education Night dinner, which was a huge success. Mariusz Kozik presented the Chemistry Olympiad awards along with a moving speech about his own beginnings as an Olympiad winner in Poland; now he has coordinated the Western New York Olympiad for fifteen years! It was heartwarming to see the glowing smile on his face as he rewards the hard work of the promising young students.

Ron Spohn awarded Mr. Peter J. Hurley of Hutch Tech High School the Science Teacher of the Year Award for his excellence. Two of the Olympiad winners were Mr. Hurley's students, and those who nominated him for the award were also in attendance. Mr. David Greco, principal of Hutch Tech, told us all of the amazing sight on Mole Day in October, when students are up at the crack of dawn at Mr. Hurley's suggestion for the proceedings. Mr. Hurley has refused numerous awards in the past but finally agreed to accept this one due to the fact that he is retiring at the end of this school year.

The WNY ACS Education committee this year was chaired by Ron Spohn, and members were Ed Kisailus, Mariusz Kozik, Luis Colon, and Joanna Christopher.

To close the evening, a fascinating presentation about microchips and their increasing capacity/decreasing size was given by Conrad Sorenson from Praxair. He showed us the cross-sectional diagrams of various types of silicon wafers that semiconductor engineers are famous for drawing on cocktail napkins. I guess they are the equivalent of We Chemists' chemical structures and reaction mechanisms drawn on paper towels! Did you know that chips with different functions, say memory and processor, have differing cross-sections? Of course the food was delicious too. A special thanks to David Starks for his jovial company at the social hour and for his contribution to the Olympiad.

Looking forward to seeing you June 1 for the Coup de Grace of the year, the Schoellkopf Award Dinner, where we will be honoring Wilson Greatbatch. (You mean he hasn't won yet?) Enjoy your spring and summer! Until we meet again, keep your joie de vivre, live like a bon vivant, come up with a unique nom de plume, and listen to la musique des etoile!

Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Joanna Christopher

Element of the Month

Atomic Number: 5
Atomic Symbol: B
Atomic Weight: 10.81
Electron Configuration: [He]2s22p1
Atomic Radius: 83 pm
Melting Point: 2075 C (or 2040 or 2300; sources vary)
Boiling Point: 4000 C (or 2550 or 4100; sources vary)
Oxidation States: 3
CAS Registry ID: 7440-42-8
Standard State: Solid at 298 K
Color: Black
Classification: Semi-metallic
Crustal Abundance: 10 mg/kg
Oceanic Abundance: 4.4 mg/L
Origins of Name: Arabic: Buraq; Persian: Burah

History: Boron compounds have been known for thousands of years, but the element was not discovered until 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy and by Gay-Lussac and Thenard. They produced metallic potassium by electrolysis, and then used it to reduce borates to impure boron.

Davy called the element boracium, the Frenchmen bore. It can also be obtained in impure form by reduction of the oxide B2O3 by magnesium, or in pure form by the reduction of BCl3 by hydrogen on hot filaments.

The first pure boron was produced by Weintraub in 1909. Ordinary boron is a brown-black amorphous powder. Pure boron can be made as extremely hard yellow monoclinic crystals that are a semiconductor resembling silicon. The band gap is 1.50 or 1.56 eV. Crystalline boron is an insulator at low temperatures, but becomes a conductor at elevated temperatures, as would be expected as carriers are thermally excited into the conduction band. Fabrication difficulties have so far prevented the use of boron as a
semiconductor. The density of crystalline boron is 2.34 g/cc, of amorphous boron, 2.37. It is a very refractory substance. Boron fibers have been used in composite materials because of their great strength.

Sources: The element is not found free in nature, but occurs in a variety of similar minerals all related to borax, sodium tetraborate, Na2B4O7.10H2O. Ulexite, another boron mineral, is interesting as it is nature's own version of "fiber optics." The name comes from the Arabic buraq, "white." Borax is the same in French and German as in English, but the element is bor. In Spanish, the words are bóraxo and boro. It is a relatively rare element in the earth's crust, representing only 0.001%. In the United States, borax is found in large amounts in California, in Searles Lake brines and in the Mojave desert. It is also found in Turkey, South America and other places. The natural deposits are dried-up lake beds. The Death Valley colemanite mines were the origin of a famous trade name. The
Harmony Borax Works were established at Furnace Creek in 1883. The product was hauled 166 miles south to Mojave by teams of 20 mules. The size of these teams was probably due to the harsh environmental conditions, in order that the mules should notexhaust themselves in the heat and aridity. They pulled only a wagon and a tank trailer (which was probably their water), which normally could probably have been handled by six mules. "20-Mule-Team Borax" was seen on many store shelves for many years, though now it is difficult to find borax in any supermarket. The teams worked until 1890, when the company failed and the mine was closed.

Important sources of boron are ore rasorite (kernite) and tincal (borax ore). Both of these ores are found in the Mojave Desert. Tincal is the most important source of boron from the Mojave. Extensive borax deposits are also found in Turkey. Boron exists naturally as 19.78% B10 isotope and 80.22% B11 isotope. High-purity crystalline boron may be prepared by the vapor phase reduction of boron trichloride or tribromide with hydrogen on electrically heated filaments. The impure or amorphous, boron, a brownish-black powder, can be obtained by heating the trioxide with magnesium powder. Boron of 99.9999% purity has been produced and is available commercially. Elemental boron has an energy band gap of 1.50 to 1.56 eV, which is higher than that of either silicon or germanium.

Properties: Optical characteristics include transmitting portions of the infrared. Boron is a poor conductor of electricity at room temperature but a good conductor at high temperature.

The B10 isotope has a high cross section for thermal neutron absorption, 3800 barns. Molten borax reacts with metal oxides to form borates that dissolve in the melt, so it is a useful as a welding and soldering flux, and in colored enamels for iron. In fact, this was the earliest use of borax, as a pottery glaze. This same property is used for borax bead tests in chemistry, where the characteristic colors produced in a transparent borax drop melted on a loop of platinum wire in a bunsen burner flame are observed. Blue, for example, is the color of cobalt; green, of chromium. The color can differ in oxidizing (blue) and reducing (yellow) flames.

Uses: Scientists looking beyond today's fuels may concentrate on a mixture of hydrogen and boron. The mix requires over 1 billion degrees to fuse, but it could generate electricity directly with no radioactive waste, and it's readily available on Earth today, according to Glen A. Wurden, a fusion researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M..

But Kulcinski countered that pure helium-3 reactions are easier to create than hydrogen and boron-11. And even though the world's supply of helium-3 can be counted in hundreds of kilograms, President Bush's plans for a moon base mean there will be a supply of the isotope sometime in the future.Thermal neutron counters are often filled with BF3 gas. The gamma ray from the neutron capture reaction B10(n,-)B11* followed by decay of the B11* to an α plus Li7 produces ionization which is then detected. Boron is also used in reactor control rods. This is a nuclear property of boron, and has nothing at all to do with its chemistry.Amorphous boron is used in pyrotechnic flares to provide a distinctive green color, and in rockets as an igniter. By far the most commercially important boron compound in terms of dollar sales is Na2B4O7.5H2O. This pentahydrate is used in very large quantities in the manufacture of insulation fiberglass and sodium perborate bleach. Borax hydrolyzes in water to form a slightly alkaline solution that is good for cleaning, since it emulsifies grease and oil. It also softens water by precipitating calcium borate. A household hint for preparing borax soap for really difficult laundry jobs was as follows. Cut up one pound laundry soap, add to one ounce of borax and a quart of water, and boil until uniform. Allow to cool, apparently in a mold, and cut into bars when solid.

Boric acid is also an important boron compound with major markets in textile products. Use of borax as a mild antiseptic is minor in terms of dollars and tons. Boron compounds are also extensively used in the manufacture of borosilicate glasses. Other boron compounds show promise in treating arthritis. The isotope boron-10 is used as a control for nuclear reactors, as a shield for nuclear radiation, and in instruments used for detecting neutrons. Boron nitride has remarkable properties and can be used to make a material as hard as diamond. The nitride also behaves like an electrical insulator but conducts heat like a metal.It also has lubricating properties similar to graphite. The hydrides are easily oxidized with considerable energy liberation, and have been studied for use as rocket fuels. Demand is increasing for boron filaments, a high-strength, lightweight material chiefly employed for advanced aerospace structures.

Boron is similar to carbon in that it has a capacity to form stable covalently bonded molecular networks. Carbonates, metalloboranes, phosphacarboranes, and other families comprise thousands of compounds.

Cost: Crystalline boron (99%) costs about $5/g. Amorphous boron costs about $2/g.

Handling: Elemental boron and the borates are not considered to be toxic, and they do not require special care in handling. However, some of the more exotic boron hydrogen compounds are definitely toxic and do require care.

Links:
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/B/key.html
http://www.radiochemistry.org/periodictable/elements/5.html
http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/boron.htm
http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele005.html
http://www.newhouse.com/archive/wylie012804.html

ISSUE COPY DEADLINE: FIRST OF MONTH PRIOR TO PUBLICATION

The Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors. Views expressed in the editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society. All materials to appear in the next issue of the Double Bond must be received by the Editor, in care of the Chemistry Department, Canisius College, 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, New York 14208, by the FIRST day of the month. Notice for change of address should be sent to the editor.

The Double Bond is published monthly from September through June by the WNY Section of the ACS. USPS# 893 86000. Subscriptions: $3/yr. Member subscriptions are included in the annual dues. Advertising rates upon request. Permission to reprint is granted all ACS publications. Office of printer and publication: Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208. Postmaster: Send change of address to: P.O. Box 187, Grand Island, NY 14072. Periodical class postage rates at Grand Island, NY 14072-0187.

WEB PAGE: membership.acs.org/W/WNY

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