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Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff, 85, Russia's chief of chemical research during World War I, who developed a polymerization process for making high-octane gasoline; in Chicago.

Ambassador to the U. S. Troyanovsky, a onetime chemistry pupil of Ipatieff's, has repeatedly tried to persuade his 70-year-old teacher to return to Russia.

Last autumn the Russian Academy of Sciences, to which Ipatieff was elected in 1915, sent him a message: ''Come immediately.''

Dr. Ipatieff pointed out that he was under longtime contract to his U. S. employers.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff is considered by his employers, Universal Oil Products Co., to be "the foremost living expert in catalytic reactions in connection with petroleum refining."