Brian Arthur Thrush (23 July 1928 – 14 September 2023) was a British
physical chemist
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...
. He was an Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Life Fellow of
Emmanuel College.
Research
Thrush studied the atom and
free radical reaction
A free-radical reaction is any chemical reaction involving free radicals. This reaction type is abundant in organic reactions. Two pioneering studies into free radical reactions have been the discovery of the triphenylmethyl radical by Moses Gombe ...
s in the
gas phase
In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of material that is chemically uniform, physically distinct, and (often) mechanically separable. In a system consisting of ice and water in a glass jar, the ice cubes are one phase, the water is a ...
of
spectroscopic methods. He made the first comprehensive examination of the
absorption spectra
Absorption may refer to:
Chemistry and biology
* Absorption (biology), digestion
** Absorption (small intestine)
* Absorption (chemistry), diffusion of particles of gas or liquid into liquid or solid materials
* Absorption (skin), a route by whic ...
of
free radicals
In chemistry, a radical, also known as a free radical, is an atom, molecule, or ion that has at least one unpaired electron, unpaired valence electron.
With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemical reaction, chemi ...
in homogeneous explosions using
flash photolysis
Flash photolysis is a pump-probe laboratory technique, in which a sample is first excited by a strong pulse of light from a pulsed laser of nanosecond, picosecond, or femtosecond pulse width or by another short-pulse light source such as a fl ...
. He discovered the absorption spectra of several free radicals (for example, the azide,
cyclopentadienyl Cyclopentadienyl can refer to
* Cyclopentadienyl anion, or cyclopentadienide,
** Cyclopentadienyl ligand
* Cyclopentadienyl radical, •
* Cyclopentadienyl cation,
See also
* Pentadienyl
{{Chemistry index ...
and
tropyl radicals), and he determined the
ionisation potential of the tropyl radical.
Thrush developed a new method of studying hydrogen atom reactions, and determined the
rate constant
In chemical kinetics, a reaction rate constant or reaction rate coefficient () is a proportionality constant which quantifies the rate and direction of a chemical reaction by relating it with the concentration of reactants.
For a reaction between ...
s of a series of nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen atom reactions important in
combustion
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...
and in the
upper atmosphere
Upper atmosphere is a collective term that refers to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth above the troposphere and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes:
* The mesosphere, which on Earth lies between th ...
. He was interested in
chemiluminescence
Chemiluminescence (also chemoluminescence) is the emission of light (luminescence) as the result of a chemical reaction, i.e. a chemical reaction results in a flash or glow of light. A standard example of chemiluminescence in the laboratory se ...
and produced a series of papers on the formation of electronically excited molecules in
transfer
Transfer may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović
* ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film
* ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies
* ...
or
recombination reactions.
Thrush also developed a
photochemical
Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of light. Generally, this term is used to describe a chemical reaction caused by absorption of ultraviolet (wavelength from 100 to 400 nm), visible (400–750&nb ...
method for studying unimolecular reactions of molecules with known energies. He also studied the
rotational spectra of free radicals (, , ) using the
Zeeman effect
The Zeeman effect () is the splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atomic electron associated with ...
to bring them into resonance with a
far infrared laser.
Death
Brian Thrush died in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
on 14 September 2023, at the age of 95.
Awards and honours
Thrush won the
Tilden Prize
The Tilden Prize is an award that is made by the Royal Society of Chemistry for advances in chemistry. The award was established in 1939 and commemorates Sir William A. Tilden, a prominent British chemist. The prize runs annually with up to thre ...
of the
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...
in 1965.
He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1976.
[ One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."]
References
Extra reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thrush, Brian
1928 births
2023 deaths
British physical chemists
Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Hendon