Frederick Kenneth McTaggart

Frederick Kenneth McTaggart (30 November 1917 – 24 March 2003) was an Australian scientist who led pioneering research into studies in microwave chemistry and gas plasma reactions – the production and use of ionised gas –and its applications from electronics to thermal coatings, treatment of polymers, fuel conversion and hydrogen production, and from plasma metallurgy to plasma medicine. McTaggart invented and patented for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation means of incorporating heat-resistant properties in paint, and novel apparatuses for the production of metals from halides using plasma jets or microwaves, and published in the field.

Early life and education

Melbourne High School in 2007

Though his birth was not registered until 1918, Frederick Kenneth McTaggart (known as Ken) was born on 30 November 1917 at Elsternwick, to Victorian Railways industrial chemist Cyril (1881 – 1966), and teacher Hilda Theresa McTaggart (née Daniel, 1882 – 1966), and his sole sibling was an older sister, Jean.

His primary education started late; aged 8 he entered Grade 4 at Ormond State School, then he was educated from age 13 at Melbourne Boys High School 1931–1936. He joined a school debating team, and the orchestra, of which he was leader in 1934, and was elected a prefect in 1935. He was a ham radio enthusiast, and in his 3rd year at the school was involved in the Wireless Club, of which he became vice-president, and built his own set, the 'MHS Twin'. It was an interest that he continued into adulthood, when in 1949 he was issued an Amateur Radio Licence, and one he maintained throughout his life.

In 1937 McTaggart passed his first year of a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Melbourne University and in April 1939 was conferred Bachelor of Science in Wilson Hall and in 1940 gained his Master of Science with first class honours. A Doctor of Science was conferred on him in 1965 by Melbourne University in recognition of his work on the chemistry of titanium and zirconium, and on reactions in low pressure discharges.

Career

In November 1940 McTaggart worked at Carbide Works at Electrona in Tasmania until mid-1941, then returned to Melbourne to live at 4 Kenilworth Gve. Glen Iris.

C.S.I.R.

Smoke screen for military camouflage

In 1942, on the recommendation of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (from 1949 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO), McTaggart was made its employee, working at first in facilities at Melbourne University. His initial investigation was the chlorination of rutile found in Australian heavy beach sands which produced titanium tetrachloride; its importance in World War II then underway, was the dense white fume it produced on exposure to moist air, making it an effective smoke screen.

McTaggart's later 'Plasma Chemistry' project was supported staff qualified in electronics; Keith Perger was appointed in 1962, replaced in 1968 by John A. Hamilton; and glassblowing; in Port Melbourne Rudi Pillig transferred to the project from the Division of Chemical Physics, though in the early days scientists including McTaggart and Newnham in the Minerals Utilization Section were themselves skilled glassblowers, and produced their own apparatus in glass or silica.

Tin

Given an increasing wartime shortage of tin, his team also commenced investigations into the production of titanium tetrachloride as an alternative material to replace stannic (tin) chloride in a number of applications. Previously prepared overseas by chlorinating titanium white pigment (titanium dioxide), McTaggart's work was demonstrated that the potential expense of proposals to import titanium white could be avoided through development of his process in which rutile sand, briquetted with coal or charcoal, was chlorinated directly. At first operated on a pilot-plant scale with Australian rutile sand replacing titanium pigment, the process was adopted for the large-scale manufacture.

Heat-resistant paint

Described as "one of the more imaginative members" of the Organisation, McTaggart continued mineral chlorination studies and early in 1944, Ian Kraitzer joined the research group in what was to become the Minerals Utilization Section of the future CSIR Division of Industrial Chemistry (created 1959), and they by a young recruit, Isabel Joy Bear as a Junior Laboratory Assistant, and later by Charles Alsope, together seeking new uses for titanium tetrachloride. In the alkoxides of titanium, in particular the properties of polymerised butyl titanate, they discovered an excellent vehicle for heat-resisting paint pigments; it was a use of titanium esters that was patented by CSIR, a project in which the Defence laboratories joined Kraitzer and McTaggart 's laboratory tests with paint formulation studies by Defence laboratories' George Winter (who later joined the Division of Mineral Chemistry). After McTaggart presented an account of their findings in Paris and London, industrial firms in England and the USA were soon marketing the new paint, and its heat-resistance was still attracting attention as late as 1962, though with no acknowledgment of the Australian contribution.

McTaggart left in 1950 to work in the UK with the British company, Laporte Industries where his work found commercial potential.

Plasma investigations and patents

Plasma chamber

Two years later McTaggart returned to the CSIRO, pioneering studies in microwave chemistry and gas plasma reactions leading from his work into the electrical resistance and conduction of the sulphides, selenides, and tellurides of the elements Ti, Zr, Hf, and Th on which he had reported in the Australian Journal of Chemistry in 1958, and supported by his development of novel experimental apparatus.

Rather than use the glow discharge generated between two electrodes to produce a plasma reaction as Newnham and Watts had done, in the late 50s McTaggart drew on technology derived from the wartime electronics of radar capable of frequencies in the microwave region of the radio spectrum to create discharges without using electrodes. He induced the plasma with these charges into the gas through coils wound around the reaction vessel, thus avoiding contamination by metal from electrodes. In his monograph, McTaggart sums up the achievement: "Instead of an arc between electrodes, a radio-frequency field may be used to maintain the plasma."

This approach, using high frequency discharges led to the discovery of new chemical reactions in low pressure plasmas, verified by a mass spectrometer built in the Division to identify the active species involved in the reactions. Research continued along two main avenues; low pressure, athermal plasmas, with high electron energies producing neutral atoms, ions, etc, at ambient or low temperature, with applications in the areas of pure research, chemical analysis, surface preparation, and thin film production; and atmospheric or high pressure plasmas, previously achieved with electrodes producing a plasma 'jet' or 'torch', and used in parallel to McTaggart's microwave technique, for the production of high temperature, which best suited the interests of the Division in minerals.

In June 1965 he presented at the VIIth International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases, and in April 1967, was invited by the United States Air Force to the American Chemical Society Conference at Miami, Florida, then addressed the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy Conference in London.

McTaggart's research led to patents as assignor to the CSIRO, including US 3,533,777 Production of metals from their halides filed Nov. 2 1966 for an apparatus and process for producing metals from the halides of metals of Groups I, II, III of the Periodic table and rare earth metals. It consisted of means to generate a plasma through high frequency eIectromagnetic energy within a gas or a vapor of that halide to cause the halide to dissociate, and then separating the metal thus produced from the other dissociation products, a process in which an auxiliary gas, hydrogen, helium or nitrogen, may also be used in conjunction with the halide. He filed another patent on Sept. 5, 1967 for Plasma sintering with Neil Mckinnon, B.C.E. Garnsworthy, Lloyd S. Williams, which was issued March 11, 1969

On the basis of his work in plasma chemistry, in July -August, 1971, McTaggart was sponsored for a tour of the United States by its Office of Naval Research, flown by the US Airforce to the NASA-Ames Base to participate in a seminar on plasma chemistry. He presented the inaugural lecture at the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Conference on Plasma Chemistry, which appointed him a member of its steering committee and later lectured at the Gordon Research Conference on Plasma Chemistry, held at Beaver Dam.

Author

Aside from his oft-cited Plasma chemistry in electrical discharges published 1967 in 16 editions in 4 languages, McTaggart was author or co-author on a number of papers in journals including Australian Journal of Chemistry, Nature, and the Journal of Applied Chemistry on experimental research into its physics and chemistry and its applications.

McTaggart was a member of the Society of Crystallographers in Australia (SCA).

Awards

For his work in applied chemical science on rutile sand, phosphate rock, graphite and beryl "which has contributed to the advancement of the welfare of the community", McTaggart was awarded the University of Melbourne's Grosvenor Laboratories Prize for 1946 by the Australian Chemical Institute; and the Grimwade prize in industrial research for 1946 for his "Mineral Chlorination Studies.” He was one of the first CSIRO officers to be awarded an honorary doctorate.

Publications

Book

• McTaggart, F. K. (Frederick Kenneth) (1967), Robinson, P. L. (ed.), Plasma chemistry in electrical discharges, London: Elsevier, retrieved 19 December 2020

Articles

• McTaggart, F.K. Mineral chlorination studies. 1. Production of titanium tetrachloride from Australian rutile sand. Journal of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. 1945; 18(1):5-26. http://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/338864?index=1
• Kraitzer, I. McTaggartr, K. and Winter, G. (1948). Esters of Titanium. Journal of Oil and Colour Chemists Association, 31, 4 0 5 -17.
• McTaggart, F.K. (1945). Mineral Chlorination Studies. 1. Production of Titanium Tetrachloride from Australian Rutile Sand. Journal of lhe Council for Scienlific and Industrial Research, 18(1), 5 -26.
• McTaggart, F.K. (1945b). Mineral Chlorination Studies. 2. The Production of Phosphorus Oxychloride by Direct Chlorination of Phosphate Rock. Journal of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 18(4), 424 -32.
• McTaggart, F.K. (1947). Mineral Chlorination Studies. 3. The Chlorination of Australian Beryl. Journal of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 20(4), 5 6 5-84
• McTaggart, F.K. (1947). Mineral Chlorination Studies. 4. The Beneficiation of Australian Graphite by Treatment with Chlorine at High Temperatures. Journal of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, , 20(3), 1 -10.
• McTaggart, F.K. Systematic chemistry of the transition elements - recent chemistry of titanium, zirconium and hafnium. Reviews in Pure and Applied Chemistry. 1951. 152–170. http://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/337739?index=1
• McTaggart, F.K. and Newnham, I.E. (1951). The Use of Radioactive Tracers in the Separation of Hafnium and Zirconium. Conference on Applications of Isotopes in Scientific Research, Melbourne, 1950, 1 6 7 -74.
• McTaggart, F.K. and Bear, J. (1955), Phototropic effects in oxides. I. Titanium dioxide. J. Appl. Chem., 5: 643–653. https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.5010051203
• McTaggart , F.K. (1956). Australian Patent 205,568
• Bear, J., & McTaggart, F. K. (1958). Phototropic effects in oxides. II. White oxides in general. Journal of Applied Chemistry, 8(1), 72–76.
• McTaggart, F. K., & Wadsley, A. D. (1958). The sulphides, selenides, and tellurides of titanium, zirconium, hafnium, and thorium. I. Preparation and characterization. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 11(4), 445–457.
• McTaggart, F. K., & Moore, A. (1958). The sulphides, Selenides, and Tellurides of Titanium, Zirconium, Hafnium, and Thorium. IV. Lubrication properties of the graphitic chalcogenides. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 11(4), 481–484.
• Blackwood, J. D., & McTaggart, F. K. (1959). Reactions of carbon with atomic gases. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 12(4), 533–542.
• Blackwood, J.D. and , F.K. (1959b). A New Approach to Carbon Gasification. Nature, 184, 447-8.
• Blackwood, J. D., & McTaggart, F. K. (1959). The oxidation of carbon with atomic oxygen. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 12(2), 114–121.
• Graham, J., & McTaggart, F. K. (1960). Observations on the systems Th-S, Th-Se and Th-Te. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 13(1), 67–73.
• McTaggart, F. K. (1961). Reduction of zirconium and hafnium Oxides. Nature, 191(4794), 1192-1192.
• McTaggart FK, New proton-Containing Oxides of Titanium, Zirconium and Hafnium. Nature 199, 339–341 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/199339a0
• McTaggart FK Turnbull AG (1964) Zirconium difluoride. Australian Journal of Chemistry 17, 727-730. https://doi.org/10.1071/CH9640727
• McTaggart FK (1964) Reactions of carbon monoxide in a high-frequency discharge. Australian Journal of Chemistry 17, 1182–1187. https://doi.org/10.1071/CH9641182
• McTaggart, F. K. (1964). Reduction of silica in a hydrogen discharge. Nature, 201(4926), 1320–1321.
• McTaggart, F. K., & Turnbull, A. G. (1964). Zirconium difluoride. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 17(7), 727-730
• McTaggart, F.K. (1965). Reduction of the Alkali and Alkaline Halides in High Frequency Discharges, Part I - Hydrogen Discharge; Part II - The Role of Electrons. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 18(7) 9 3 7-48; 9 4 9-57.
• McTaggart F.K, Reduction of the Alkali and Alkaline Earth Halides by Active Hydrogen. Nature 206, 616 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/206616a0
• Black, A. L., Dunster, R. W., Sanders, J. V., & McTaggart, F. K. (1967). Molybdenum bisulphide deposits—their formation and characteristics on automotive engine parts. Wear, 10(1), 17–32.
• McTaggart, F. K. (1965). Reduction of the alkali and alkaline earth halides in high-frequency discharges. I. Hydrogen discharge. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 18(7), 937–948.
• McTaggart, F.K. (1965). The Reduction of the Alkali and Alkaline Earth Halides by Active Hydrogen. Nature, 206(4984) 616.
• McTaggart, F.K. (1967). Formation of Metals from Their Halides by Plasma Reactions. Proceedings of the Symposium, Advances in Extractive Metallurgy (London). (Institution of Mining and Metallurgy: London.)
• McTaggart, F.K. (1969). The Dissociation of Metal Halides in Electrical Discharges. In Chemical Reactions in Electrical Discharges. Advances in Chemistry Series No. 80, 176-81 (American Chemical Society: Eton, Pa.).
• McIntyre, R.J. and McTaggart F.K. (1970). Comparison of the Reactions of Atomic and Molecular Halogens with Silver. Journal of Physical Chemistry, 74, 866-74.
• Dorman, F. H., & McTaggart, F. K. (1970). Absorption of microwave power by plasmas. Journal of Microwave Power, 5(1), 4-16.
• Chandler, B. V., & McTaggart, F. K. (1971). Fluorine atoms from an RF electric discharge. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 24(12), 2683–2684.
• Dorman, F.H. and F.K. (1972). Electron Density and Temperature in Microwave Plasmas at Higher Pressures. Journal of Microwave Power, 7(3), 1 8 1 - 4