chemistry

William D. Emmons

William D. Emmons is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William D. Emmons rather than just read about it. In short: William D. Emmons (November 18, 1924 – December 8, 2001) was an American chemist and published with William S.

Key takeaways

William D. Emmons belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect William D. Emmons to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of William D. Emmons from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William D. Emmons (November 18, 1924 – December 8, 2001) was an American chemist and published with William S. Wadsworth a modification to the Wittig-Horner reaction using phosphonate-stabilized carbanions, now called the Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction in his honor.

Life Emmons, a native of Minnesota, studied at the University of MinnesotaB.Sc. degree. After serving in World War 2 as a meteorologist in the Pacific Theater, he attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, where he received a PhD. in 1951 (research advisor R. C. Fuson). He avoided being drafted for the Korean War by working for the Redstone Arsenal Research of Rohm and Haas. In 1986, his innovations were rewarded with the first Roy W. Tess Award for Coatings Science awarded by the Polymeric Materials, Science, and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He retired from Rohm and Haas in 1989.

Work In work undertaken in collaboration with Arthur F. Ferris, Emmons reported that in situ generated trifluoroperacetic acid was capable of oxidising aniline to nitrobenzene, an observation which pioneered the applications of this peroxy acid as an oxidising agent in organic chemistry. Emmons went on to discuss the preparation of trifluoroperacetic acid and numerous applications of the new reagent, including: oxidation of nitrosamines to nitramines; the Baeyer–Villiger oxidations of ketones to esters; and the conversion of alkenes to epoxides (in the presence of a buffer) or to glycols (without the buffer). He was credited with several breakthrough innovations, and was the author of more than 150 patents and papers during his 38-year career according to Rohm and Haasand was also prompted development of new urethane rheology modifiers that contributed to significant advances in the performance of water-based acrylic paint and early research on a variety of opaque polymers, including Rohm and Haas's Hollow Sphere Polymer technology.

References

Freeman, Jeremiah P. (November 14, 2002). "William D. Emmons: November 18, 1924 - December 8, 2001" (PDF). Org. Synth. 80: xxvii–xxix.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William D. Emmons

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William D. Emmons claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William D. Emmons before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William D. Emmons ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William D. Emmons

In research: William D. Emmons appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William D. Emmons in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William D. Emmons is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1924 births, 2001 deaths, 20th-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William D. Emmons outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study William D. Emmons in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William D. Emmons means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain William D. Emmons out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William D. Emmons in simple terms?

William D. Emmons (November 18, 1924 – December 8, 2001) was an American chemist and published with William S.

Why does William D. Emmons matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William D. Emmons?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William D. Emmons.