Daniel Eley made investigations of various exchange reactions on metal films and on alloys. He was one of the first to employ metal films. He demonstrated the covalent nature of chemiospheric bonds (Eley–Stevenson equation) and revealed quantitatively the role of d-electron levels in catalysis. He discussed the semiconductive properties of phthalocyanines and other organic solids and showed that the activation energy for semiconduction arises in the pi electrons. This work has been extended to proteins. He studied the ionic polymerisation of the vinyl ethers with a wide range of catalysts, and had also applied the monolayer technique to lipoprotein interactions.
Professor Daniel Eley OBE FRS
