Natta, Giulio (1903-1979)

Italian chemist who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1963 with German chemist Karl Ziegler for work on the chemistry and technology of high polymers. Natta's early work on heterogeneous catalysts formed the basis for many important industrial syntheses.

Natta was born in Imperia, near Monaco, and studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Milan. After holding professorships at Pavia, Rome, and Turin, he returned to Milan Polytechnic 1938 as director of the Industrial Chemistry Research Institute, to work on artificial rubber. In 1953 he became a consultant to Montecatini, a company that had a licence arrangement with Ziegler.

Natta used Ziegler's catalysts to polymerize propylene (propene, CH3CH=CH2). In 1954 he found that part of the polymer is highly crystalline and coined the term ‘isotactic’ to describe the polymer's symmetrical structure.

The isotactic polymers Natta discovered after 1954 showed properties of commercial importance, such as high melting point, high strength, and an ability to form films and fibres. It was realized that a new type of polymerization, called coordination polymerization, was involved.