Professor Karl Otto Christe, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, celebrates his 80th birthday on July 24, 2016.
Professor Christe’s research interests include high energy density materials, rocket propellants. He is a pioneer in the areas of polynitrogen and polyazide compounds and fluorine chemistry. His work combines an experimental approach and collaborations with theoreticians.
Karl Otto Christe studied chemistry at the Technical University of Stuttgart, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. in 1961. He worked at Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, CA, USA, from 1967 to 1994. Christe joined the University of Southern California as Professor in 1994. From 1994 to 2005, he additionally worked as Senior Staff Advisor at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards Air Force Base, CA, USA.
Among other awards, Professor Christe has received NASA’s Apollo Achievement Award in 1969, the ACS Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 1986, the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry in 2003, the Alfred Stock Preis from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in 2006, and the Tolman Award from the ACS in 2011.
Selected Publications
- Protonation of Nitriles: Isolation and Characterization of Alkyl- and Arylnitrilium Ions,
Ralf Haiges, Amanda F. Baxter, Nadine R. Goetz, Joachim A. Axhausen, Theresa Soltner, Andreas Kornath, Karl O. Christe,
Dalton Trans. 2016, 45, 8494–8499.
DOI: 10.1039/c6dt01301e - Syntheses of Diphenylaminodiazidophosphane and Diphenylaminofluoroazidophosphane,
William W. Wilson, Andrew J. Clough, Ralf Haiges, Martin Rahm, Karl O. Christe,
Inorg. Chem. 2015, 54, 11859–11867.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.5b02097 - Synthesis and Characterization of Fluorodinitroamine, FN(NO2)2,
Karl O. Christe, William W. Wilson, Guillaume Bélanger-Chabot, Ralf Haiges, Jerry A. Boatz, Martin Rahm, G. K. Surya Prakash, Thomas Saal, Mathias Hopfinger,
Angew. Chem. 2015, 127, 1332–1336.
DOI: 10.1002/ange.201410507 - The Molybdenum(V) and Tungsten(VI) Oxoazides [MoO(N3)3], [MoO(N3)3·2 CH3CN], [(bipy)MoO(N3)3], [MoO(N3)5]2−, [WO(N3)4], and [WO(N3)4·CH3CN],
Ralf Haiges, Juri Skotnitzki, Zongtang Fang, David A. Dixon, Karl O. Christe,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 15550–15555.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201505418 - Convenient Access to α-Fluorinated Alkylammonium Salts,
Amanda F. Baxter, Karl O. Christe, Ralf Haiges,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 14535–14538.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201507177 - Third Row Transition Metal Hexafluorides, Extraordinary Oxidizers, and Lewis Acids: Electron Affinities, Fluoride Affinities, and Heats of Formation of WF6, ReF6, OsF6, IrF6, PtF6, and AuF6,
Raluca Craciun, Désireé Picone, Rebecca T. Long, Shenggang Li, David A. Dixon, Kirk A. Peterson, Karl O. Christe,
Inorg. Chem. 2010, 49, 1056–1070.
DOI: 10.1021/ic901967h - Bond Dissociation Energies in Second-Row Compounds,
Daniel J. Grant, Myrna H. Matus, Jackson R. Switzer, David A. Dixon, Joseph S. Francisco, Karl O. Christe,
J. Phys. Chem. A 2008, 112, 3145–3156.
DOI: 10.1021/jp710373e - Recent Advances in the Chemistry of N5+, N5− and High-Oxygen Compounds,
Karl O. Christe,
Propellants, Explos., Pyrotech. 2007, 32, 194–204.
DOI: 10.1002/prep.200700020 - Oxygen-Balanced Energetic Ionic Liquid,
C. Bigler Jones, Ralf Haiges, Thorsten Schroer, Karl O. Christe,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 4981–4984.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200600735 - High-Energy-Density Materials: Synthesis and Characterization of N5+ [P(N3)6]−, N5+ [B(N3)4]−, N5+ [HF2]−·n HF, N5+ [BF4]−, N5+ [PF6]−, and N5+ [SO3F]−,
Ralf Haiges, Stefan Schneider, Thorsten Schroer, Karl O. Christe,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 4919–4924.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200454242
Also of Interest
- Trifluoromethyl Anion Unchained,
Xin Su,
ChemViews Mag. 2015.
Possible intermediate prepared as a free and uncoordinated species for the first time
