George Andrew Olah

George Olah received the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on carbocations, specifically for developing methods to generate and observe these highly reactive intermediates in stable form using superacid media. His techniques allowed chemists to directly study reaction intermediates that had previously been only theoretical constructs.

Superacids are acids stronger than 100% sulfuric acid, such as fluorosulfuric acid and the mixture of antimony pentafluoride with fluorosulfuric acid known as 'magic acid.' Olah used these extremely powerful acids at low temperatures to protonate hydrocarbons and stabilize carbocations long enough to study them spectroscopically, something previously thought impossible.

Magic acid is the name given to a superacid mixture of fluorosulfuric acid and antimony pentafluoride (FSO₃H·SbF₅). Olah's research group coined the name after demonstrating that the mixture could dissolve and protonate a paraffin candle—seemingly 'magical' behavior for an acid, since saturated hydrocarbons were previously considered chemically inert.

Olah conducted his pioneering carbocation research at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and later at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, where he founded the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. He had earlier emigrated from Hungary to the United States after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.