Institute of Catalysis and Inorganic Chemistry named after Academician M.F.Nagiyev

The Institute of Chemistry was founded in 1935 on the basis of departments of chemistry and applied chemistry in a newly established Azerbaijan branch of the Academy of Sciences of USSR. The organizer and the first director of the Institute of Chemistry was corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of USSR Konstantin Krasusky who was invited to Azerbaijan in 1929.

Establishment of the institute

Later on the Institute was directed by professor Mammadamin Efendi (1937-1941), professor Shikhbala Aliyev (1941- 1943), corresponding member of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences Shamkhal Mammadov (1943- 1949), corresponding member of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences Heydar Efendiyev (1949-1967), academician Izzat Orujova (1967-1971), corresponding member of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences Zulfugar Zulfugarov (1971-1983), in 1983- 1985 corresponding member of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences Telman Gurbanov held the post of director, and from 1985 to 2002 academician Ramiz Rizayev was director of the Institute.In 1965 by the resolution of the Presidium of the AS of USSR and the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan SSR the Institute of Chemistry was renamed to the Institute of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry.

The achievements of the scientific-research works of the Institute

• the distribution regularities of rare and radioactive elements in various type rocks, mineral and produced waters have been studied, the new schemes of mineralogy and geochemistry in hydrothermal ore complex of the northeastern edge of the Lesser Caucasus have been worked out, geochemistry of pyrite-polymetallic deposits (Filizchay, Katckh, Katedag and etc.) found on the southern slopes of Greater Caucasus was studied;
• mechanism of absorption of mineral produced and sea waters and distribution of microelements in oil-water-rock ternary heterogeneous systems has been studied. The regularities of dissipation and collection, their migration have been established by studying distribution of rare and radioactive elements in produced waters-rock system in oil deposits;
• by improving the technology of processing alunite ore economically profitable and ecologically pure technological process has been developed and tested. The scientific foundations of processing of weak alutinized rocks using combined acidic-alkaline method have been worked out;
• several versions of complex processing of technological schemes of polymetallic sulfide ores have been developed; this scheme also enables to extract macroelements (iron, sulphur, copper, zinc) and rare and valuable metals as well.
• The regularities of producing reactive pure valuable raw materials (iron, titanium 4-oxide, vanadium-5 oxide, chromic compounds) for steelmaking, powdery metallurgy and other industrial fields by direct reduction of Dashkesan iron ore and titanium magnetite with natural gas and extraction technology of magnetite and copper-cobalt concentrate from wastes of enriched ore have been developed;
• the rational extractants (naphthenic acids and their derivatives) being the direct products of oil processing or synthesized on their basis have been found, production technology of high quality blue copperas and nickel-sulfate from treated industrial products has been tested in pilot plant and the extraction methods enabling to treat several salts and selectively extract rare-earth elements have been proposed;
• the new high sensitive and selective spectrophotometric, extraction-photometric, atomic-absorption methods of determining some noble elements have been developed and applied in analysis of complex natural and industrial samples in plant and scientific-research laboratories;

Today scientific researches are performed in a series of directions and problems at the Institute:

• Development of fundamental bases of catalysis;
• Working out of profitable catalysts and adsorbents for conversion of hydrocarbons and gas chemistry and environmental protection;
• Study of kinetics and mechanism of chemical processes, their modeling and optimization;
• Synthesis of different functional materials, nano-composites, molecular magnetic and conductors;
• Creation of effective processes for processing of local mineral raw materials and obtaining of practically important inorganic compounds.