Langmuir, Irving, contributions

Insiders, Outsiders, and Surfaces Irving Langmuir s Contribution to Catalysis... 

Irving Langmuir s contributions to the advancement of catalysis research were many and varied, ranging from important theoretical concepts to the invention of vacuum pumps and gauges which facilitated experiment. In this paper, we review this work and attempt to place it in the historical context of the science of the time and the laboratory in which he worked, and describe how Langmuir took full advantage of his opportunities to act as both an insider and an outsider in the field of catalysis. 

His scientific work lay almost entirely in surface chemistry, essentially in the study of monolayers. He took up the study of monolayers, following the remarkable contribution made by Irving Langmuir. The field at that time needed a first class experimentalist who could work with rigour and dispassionate exactness. N. K. was the ideal man for this. 

Irving Langmuir was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistiy for his work in surface chemistry. He contributed to atomic theory and the understanding of atomic stracture by defining the concepts of valence shells and isotopes. 

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