John Henry Sinfelt

Senior Scientific Advisor Emeritus. Main research interest is heterogeneous catalysis. He introduced and developed the concept of bimetallic clusters as catalyst entities, and demonstrated their great importance in technology. He pioneered the application of bimetallic cluster catalysts in producing high octane number gasoline. This contributed vitally in making lead-free gasoline econominally feasible. As a consequence, pollution of our environment by lead emissions has been virtually eliminated. Moreover, the lead -free gasoline made it possible to use catalytic converters in automobiles, since the poisoning effect of lead on the catalysts was removed. Carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbon, and nitrogen oxide emissions were thereby greatly decreased.