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Show ll4 energy of the bombarding electron and that the resulting fragmentation of the excited atom or molecule can be calculated using absolute rate theory and potential energy surfaces. tained experimentally.65 The results agree well with those ob- Their work set the study of mass spectrography off on a quantitative path, and a wave of new research and activity in this field has resulted.66 Following this work, Eyring became involved in the chemistry of chromatography, a subject brought to prominence in l952 when British scientists A. J. P. Martin and R. L. M. Synge received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work in that field. Chromatography is a method of separating substance, as in the flow of a liquid over a solid such as paper, and Eyring saw another application of absolute rate theory to explain the rate of such flows and the resulting separation. Eyring and his graduate student, J. Calvin Giddings, used absolute rate theory to explain the dynamics of chromatography.67 Giddings completed his Ph.D. degree under Eyring in chromatography and has become one of the leaders in the world in this field. In the late l950's and l960's Eyring became concerned with the electrochemical processes involved in corrosion, smelting, and other similar chemical and physical reactions. Corrosion of metals is a serious problem in the world, causing many billions of dollars of damage each year. The properties of metals involving corrosion are determined by the processes which occur between the metal's surface and the surrounding solution. The rate of dissolution of metals depends on the potential at the interface between metal and solution and the potential, in turn, depends on a number of things: salt concentration, pH, pres- sure of gases, temperature and metal impurities. Eyring's approach to |
