Tomorrow (18th May) marks the date of birth of Thomas Midgley, who made significant contributions to something many of us make use of on a regular basis: petrol. Midgley was the research assistant to Charles Kettering, and the duo were responsible for the addition of the compound tetraethyl lead to petrol. This innovation would have a lasting legacy – although perhaps not in the manner that they may have originally envisioned.
Volkswagen have been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the past week. The company admitted to installing a ‘defeat device’ in millions of cars which made it appear in emissions tests that they emitted far lower levels of particular pollutants than they actually did in normal road conditions. Plenty of articles have looked at the particulars of the scandal since the story broke last week, so as well as considering the pollutants involved in the VW story, here we’ll also take a closer look at how we use chemistry to remove pollutants from vehicle emissions.
This graphic comes off the back of a number of requests for it to be added to the ‘Aroma Chemistry’ series. The characteristic ‘new car smell’, as with the majority of entries in this series, can’t be pinned down to just one compound – rather, it’s a complex mixture of chemicals that, combined, give the recognisable smell. Here’s a look at some of the major compounds, and where they come from.
