Barrer, Richard

The Faraday Society journals have made major contributions to the science of solid state chemistry over the last hundred years, and many of the major developments in the subject have been first published in the Society s journals. Here we highlight a fascinating study reported in the Transactions of the Faraday Society in 1959 by that versatile and prolific physical and solid state chemist, Richard Barrer, which in a number of ways foreshadows modern developments of the subject. 

Zeolites (molecular sieves) have been known since Cronstedt recognized stilbite in 1756 (75). They found limited application in areas such water softening by ion exchange, but they did not attract widescale attention until synthetic methods were developed, particularly by Professor Richard Barrer beginning in the late 1930s. Eventually, Robert Milton, Donald Breck and others at Union Carbide became interested in these materials for separation of air into nitrogen and oxygen, and they worked out synthesis procedures that... 

The unit barrer is a non-SI unit in the cgs system for the gas permeability P of thin materials in honor of the New Zealand chemist Richard M. Barrer (1910 1996), who was a leader in research on the diffusion of gases. The permeability P of 1 barrer corresponds to the flow rate of 10 cubic centimeters per second (volume at standard temperature and pressure, 0 °C and 1 atm), times 1 cm of membrane thickness, per square centimeter of membrane area, and centimeter of mercury difference in pressure between both sides of the membrane. That is, a permeability of 1 barrer = 10 cm s cmHg" (Equation 2), or. 

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