Germany''s Ertl wins Nobel for ''surface chemistry''

Mumbai: Gerhard Ertl of Germany has won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his studies of processes used to make artificial fertilisers and in cars'' exhaust systems.

Ertl''s work in so-called surface chemistry has helped explain why iron rusts and how fuel cells function, the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation said in a statement on its website.

Ertl has also studied the process used to extract nitrogen from the air for inclusion in fertilisers.

"This reaction, which functions using an iron surface as its catalyst, has enormous economic significance because the availability of nitrogen for growing plants is often restricted," the foundation said in the statement.

Ertl will receive 10 million kronor ($1.6 million).

Born in Bad Cannstadt, Germany, in 1936, Ertl is professor emeritus at Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max- Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin. He received his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1965 from the Technische Universitat in Munich.