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Raney® History |
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The Man...Murray Raney It was a casual conversation with a co-worker that changed Murray Raney's life and, eventually led to his revolutionizing chemical processes in industries as varied as petroleum, pharmaceuticals, food and plastics. During the course of his first job in a furniture factory, Murray Raney, (born the son of a construction contractor in Carrollton Kentucky, 1885) who described himself as "only a whisper away from a juvenile delinquent" in talking with some of his co-workers, wondered if he too would be doing the same job after twenty-five years. He decided then that he needed an education and took several correspondence school courses while continuing to work. Mr. Raney made the decision to become a pattern maker in the automobile industry and enrolled at the University of Kentucky for a summer course. He did so well that the Dean of the School of Engineering encouraged him to continue his education. Soon after that, the professor of electrical engineering hired him as an assistant to fill a vacancy. This was quite a feat for someone who had never attended high school. In fact, never having graduated from high school left Raney with a life long feeling that he was "uneducated," although he graduated from college in 1909 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Murray Raney's responsibility for the production of hydrogen and its use in the catalytic conversion of liquid vegetable oil to solid fats at Lookout Refining Co., led him to his interest in catalysts. |
His experiences with the supported nickel
catalyst then used for the hydrogenation of vegetable oil, prompted him in
1920 to search on his own for a more active catalyst. He achieved this in
1924 when he discovered that catalytically active nickel could be produced
from nickel alloys. The catalyst thus produced is known throughout the
world as Raney® Catalyst. Between 1925 and 1961 he was granted
six US and five European patents covering the preparation of his catalyst.
Shortly after his retirement from Gilman Paint and Varnish Co., he founded The Raney Catalyst Co. of South Pittsburg, TN. This was the start of the Raney® Catalyst product line that, (after being acquired in 1963 by W.R. Grace & Co.-Conn.), still operates under the Grace Davison banner. Murray Raney was the recipient of the 1960 "Distinguished Service Award" of the Chattanooga Section American Chemical Society. In 1964, he was the recipient of the University of Kentucky "Distinguished Alumni Centennial Award." From the time it was first introduced until the present day, the use of Raney® nickel has brought about important changes in the areas of organic synthesis and organic chemicals production. In 1935 Leopold Ruzicka reported a method for preparing androsterone and testosterone, male sex hormones, from cholesterol in which Raney® nickel played an important role. Later in 1939, he and Adolph Butenandt shared the Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery. The catalyst was also used in the study to elucidate the structure of penicillin and the preparation of Atabrine, a drug used during the second World War as a substitute for quinine in the treatment of Malaria. Today Raney® nickel is used in a wide variety of chemical processes to produce chemicals used in the processing of petroleum and food products and in the production of pharmaceuticals, plastics, resins, and surfactants. Raney® catalysts have been studied by the leading scientists throughout the world. Several thousand articles referring to the catalyst have appeared in literature over the past fifty plus years. Samples of the various Raney® catalysts and alloys are on display at the Chandler Museum of Colombia University. As Mr. Raney said in an interview a few years before his death. "I was just lucky...I had an idea for a catalyst and it worked the first time."
Excerpts from Grace Davison literature and |
