Topchiev, Alexander Vasilievich

The early years

Born on July 27 (August 9), 1907 in the settlement of Mikhailovka (now the city, Volgograd region ). His family was outstanding, despite the fact that his father came from ordinary peasants. In 1921 he moved to Moscow with his parents. Immediately he entered the technical school of handicraft industry of the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR , combining his studies with the work of a messenger in the Moscow department of public education ^[2] . At the end of the technical school, he received the specialty of a technician in dyeing and printing.

Studying at the institute

In the year he graduated from college, he entered the Moscow Art Institute named after D. I. Mendeleev . At the same time he worked as a chemistry teacher in the same technical school. The student actively participated in the Komsomol and trade union work, showing a strong interest in learning. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1932.

After graduating from the institute and receiving the qualification of a process engineer in 1930, he entered graduate school at the Department of Organic Chemistry. Two years later, he became an assistant professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Moscow Art Institute named after D.I. In 1937 he defended his thesis on "On nitration with nitrogen oxides of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds" ^[3] .

Career

In 1937, he was appointed head of the department of organic chemistry at the Technological Institute of the Food Industry .

Before the war in 1940, he transferred to work at the Moscow Petroleum Institute. I.M. Gubkin to the post of head of the department of organic chemistry and oil chemistry. He worked there until 1962. At the height of the war, almost the entire institute was evacuated to Ufa , and the remaining part of it in Moscow received the status of a branch, and Topchiev was appointed director of it. The Higher Attestation Commission in 1944 approved him in the professorship. Already in this rank he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: "Some new ways of nitration of hydrocarbons." At the end of the war, he was appointed director of the IMI named after I.M. Gubkin . He worked in this post until 1947.

Two years after that, he served as deputy minister of higher education of the USSR.

In this capacity, he led the organization of the so-called. The “All-Union Conference of Physicists” (December 1948 - March 1949), in the framework of which it was planned, following Lysenko’s triumph over biology, to make a kind of "lysenko" of physics. ^[four]

In 1949, he was elected full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR with a degree in Organic Chemistry. In the same year he receives the position of chief scientific secretary, and after 9 years - vice president. He devoted four more years to the end of his life to work at the USSR Academy of Sciences ^[5] .

Member of the Armed Forces of the RSFSR 4-5 convocations. Full member of the Academies of Sciences of Bulgaria (1958) and Czechoslovakia, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Romania ^[6] , honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Hungary.

Member of the first Pugwash Conference of Scientists (1957), chairman of the Soviet Pugwash Committee in 1957-1962, member of the Standing Committee of the Pugwash Scientists Movement in 1958-1962.

In the 1950s, the world began the active development of the oil and gas and petrochemical industries. And it was precisely on the initiative of Topchiev that the problem of “Petrochemistry” was separately highlighted in Russia. He greatly contributed to the development of research institutes of this specialty and did everything in his power to turn petrochemistry and oil refining into one of the most dynamically developing fields of science in Russia.

In 1954, under his leadership, the first All-Union meeting on the chemical processing of hydrocarbons was held, which was attended by the heads of various ministries.

He took an active part in the preparation of the report of N. S. Khrushchev at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU ^[7] , devoted to the development of chemistry and the chemical industry in Russia.

In the same 1958, the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis was formed, the first director of which was A.V. Topchiev.

The author of more than 300 works, 10 monographs in the field of organic chemistry and oil chemistry, chlorination and nitration of alkanes, organosilicon compounds and not only. The author of many popular science and non-fiction books on the history of science. He was the chief editor of the journal "Petrochemistry", which began to be published in 1961, the chairman of the editorial board of the international yearbook " Science and Humanity ", was a member of the collegiums of the journal "Bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences" and "Chemistry and Technology of Fuel" and played a significant role in the formation of another series of Russian scientific journals ^[8] .

Nitration ^[9]

Topchiev's first works were devoted to nitration of aromatic compounds and amines with the help of nitrogen dioxide. In addition, various nitrating agents, substrates of these reactions, activators and catalysts of processes were studied. He developed nitration methods for saturated hydrocarbons, including methane nitration in the presence of chlorine.

The study of nitration mechanisms was the main task of the scientific work of Topchiev and his staff. He proved that nitration reactions have a chain radical mechanism, which is still universally recognized.

Several of his studies are devoted to the low-temperature nitration of hydrocarbons with metal nitrates in the presence of halogen-containing substances. He developed a nitration method based on these works, and proposed a reaction mechanism.

Alkylation

The polymerization and alkylation reactions of isoparaffins and aromatics with unsaturated hydrocarbons ^[10] became the central topic of his research in the post-war period. He also studied the effect of catalysts such as boron fluoride and its compounds on the course of reactions ^[11] . The purpose of these extensive works was to obtain high-octane gasoline additives.

The result of his scientific work on zeolite catalysts were methods for producing alkylaromatic hydrocarbons.

Organosilicon compounds

Ways of direct synthesis of some silicon organo compounds were studied. Co-author of many works by Topchiev on this topic was N. S. Nametkin. They described reactions such as the addition of hydridesilanes to unsaturated organic compounds, the addition of chloro- and bromohydrogen compounds of silicon, dihydrosilanes to olefins ^[12] and cycloolefins ^[13] . As a rule, the authors used platinum catalysts and initiation by ultraviolet radiation.

Topchiev and his colleagues developed a fundamentally new method for producing organosilicon, which is based on the alternation of silicon-methylene and siloxane units. He first discovered the ability to obtain high molecular weight soluble organosilicon polymers.

Synthesis was not the only area of ​​study of organosilicon molecules; scientists worked on the study of the dependences of the physicochemical parameters of compounds on their structure. These works brought the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis worldwide fame.

Polymerization ^[14]

The discovery of the polymerization reaction of ethylene and propylene led to the creation of a group at the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis, which began to study gaseous olefins in the polymerization reaction. Much attention was paid to the study of reaction catalysts — organoaluminum and metal oxide compounds.

One of the most interesting results obtained by the Topchiev group was the polymerization of propylene in liquid propane. Due to the high speed and reaction conversion, scientists were able to implement this process at the Moscow Oil Refinery. Now this reaction is used in refineries in many countries of the world.

Topchiev worked on the subject of polyconjugated compounds, which are polymer molecules with sites of conjugated double bonds. The scientific group studied both the methods of synthesis of such macromolecules and the physicochemical properties, while paying great attention to the electrical conductivity of the material.

One of the promising areas at the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis was the study of physiologically active polymers.

He organized a group to study stereospecific polymerization. To achieve the goal, he invited Boris Alexandrovich Dolgoplosk, a highly qualified specialist in this field, to the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis. The results of the work greatly advanced the field of polymer chemistry. A significant part of the research has found practical application in industry.

• Topchiev A.V. Selected Works in the 3rd book. - M .: Nauka, 1965.
  • Prince I. Nitration. 1965.427 s.
  • Prince II. Alkylation 1965.555 s.
  • Prince III. Polymerization. Silicon-organic compounds. 1966.528 s.
• Topchiev A.V. et al. The importance of oil in the production of modern synthetic materials. - M .: Publishing house of Acad. Science of the USSR. 1959. - 128 p.
• Topchiev A.V. Nitration of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. - M .: Publishing house of Acad. Science of the USSR. 1956.- 488 p.
• Topchiev A. V. et al. The alkylation reaction of organic compounds with olefins. - M .: Publishing house of Acad. Science of the USSR. 186.- 324 p.
• Topchiev A.V. et al. Boron fluoride and its compounds as catalysts in organic chemistry. - M .: Publishing house of Acad. Science of the USSR. 1956.- 356 p.
• Topchiev A.V. Compounds of boron fluoride as catalysts in the reactions of alkylation, polymerization and condensation. - M .; L .: Gostoptekhizdat, 1949 .-- 150 p.

At the invitation of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a delegation of the USSR Academy of Sciences headed by Vice President A.V. Topchiev departed from the USA for Moscow. The delegation includes academicians N. N. Bogolyubov and V. A. Kargin . Soviet scientists will take part in the annual meeting of the US National Academy of Sciences in Washington.

- True , April 13, 1961. S. 6.

• Brother Alexey Vasilievich (1912-1969) - Minister of General Engineering of the USSR.
• Brother Nikolai Vasilievich (1905–1961) - chief of the Glavkislorod under the Council of Ministers of the USSR
• Sister Claudia Vasilievna (1911-1984) - a chemical scientist in the field of catalysis.
• The younger brother, Pyotr Vasilievich (1915-1977), was a naval pilot, commander of a long-range mine torpedo regiment of the Northern Fleet Air Force, had the military rank of colonel, and later served in senior positions of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

He died on December 27, 1962 . Many responses and condolences were received from abroad regarding his untimely death. The academician was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (plot number 8).

Named Topchiev:

• Streets in the city of Donetsk, in the city of Mikhailovka, Volgograd region
• Motor ship "Academic Topchiev"
• Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

• With a portrait of A.V. Topchiev, postage stamped envelopes were issued.
• For students of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after I. M. Gubkin established Topchiev scholarship.
• At the building of the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis named after A.V. Topchiev RAN installed a memorial plaque to the scientist.

• Lenin Prize (1962)
• Stalin Prize of the third degree (1950) - for the development and implementation of new aircraft engines
• two orders of Lenin
• two orders of the Red Banner of Labor
• medals ^[15] .

• Alexander Vasilievich Topchiev (1907-1962). Materials for bio-bibliography of scientists of the USSR . Ser. chemical. Vol. 34. M.: Nauka , 1964, 159 p.
• Central Committee of the RCP (b) -VKP (b) -KPSS. 1922-1991 / 1952-1958 / holes. comp .: V. Yu. Afiani, V. D. Esakov . - M.: ROSSPEN , 2010 .-- C. 1175.
• Hadzhiev S. N. Alexander Topchiev (1907-1962) // Russian science in persons / under the general. ed. Yu.S. Osipova ; comp. V.A. Popov. - M.: Academy, 2009. - Vol. 6. - C.: 229–239: Portr., Ill.
• Topchiev A.V. // Russian Academy of Sciences: list of academy members. 1724-1999, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: List of the akademy members 1724-1999 / [auth.: B.V. Levshin et al.]. - M .: Nauka, 1999 .-- S. 239.
• Korneev S. G. A. Topchiev // Korneev S. G. Soviet scientists - honorary members of scientific organizations of foreign countries / [ed. ed. Acad. Yu. A. Ovchinnikov ]. - M .: Ch. ed. East lit. (type. "Science"), 1981. - C. 134.

• Profile of Alexander Vasilievich Topchiev on the official website of the RAS
• Alexander Vasilievich Topchiev in the portrait gallery of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas I. M. Gubkina
• Article on the website of the Russian Pugwash Committee
• Historical background on the website of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences