Carl Wagner (chemist)

Carl Wilhelm Wagner (born May 25, 1901 in Leipzig , † December 10, 1977 in Göttingen ) was a German physical chemist . He is considered a pioneer of modern solid-state chemistry .

Life

Wagner was born in 1901 as the son of the chemist Julius Wagner (1857–1924) in Leipzig. His father was Wilhelm Ostwald's assistant and the first professor of chemistry didactics in Germany, as well as managing director of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry .

He attended the humanistic Thomas School in Leipzig until 1920 . He then studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig . In electrochemistry , he was in 1924 when Max Le Blanc with the thesis contributions to the knowledge of the reaction rate in solutions for Dr. phil. PhD.

From 1924 to 1927 he was a research assistant at the Pharmaceutical Institute of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . He completed his habilitation in 1927 under Theodor Paul with the thesis Contributions to the knowledge of the mechanism of chemical reactions and became a private lecturer in applied chemistry.

From 1927 to 1928 he was a scholarship holder of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (today: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ) at the Bodenstein Institute of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . During his stay he met Walter Schottky and Wilhelm Jost , who shaped him scientifically.

From 1928 to 1933 he was a private lecturer and assistant at the Chemical Institute of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . In 1933 he was appointed associate professor . Together with Walter Schottky and Hermann Ulich , he wrote the well-known work Theory of the Ordered Mixed Phases in 1930 . In this they established the thermodynamics of imperfections in solid-state chemistry .

From 1933 to 1934 he was a substitute professor for physical chemistry at the University of Hamburg . In 1934 he became associate professor and in 1940 full professor for physical chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt . He was one of the leaders and developed control mechanisms for the German missile development in the Peenemünde Army Research Center .

In 1933 Wagner joined the SA . He evaded dismissal and denazification by leaving for the USA.

Group of rocket researchers from Project Paperclip

From 1945 to 1949 he was Scientific Advisor to the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) at Fort Bliss in El Paso , Texas. He belonged to Wernher von Braun's group and worked on the thermodynamics of rocket fuels. From 1950 to 1954 he was visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA. In 1955 he became professor of metallurgy .

In 1958 he returned to Germany and was director of the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry in Göttingen as the successor to Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer until 1966 , which was merged with the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in 1971. Even after that, he continued to work and publish scientifically in contact with the younger scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. In 1960 he received an honorary professorship at the University of Göttingen . In 1961 he quantitatively described the theory of Ostwald ripening in the article Theory of the Aging of Precipitation by Dissolution (Ostwald Ripening) .

Carl Wagner died in Göttingen in 1977.

science

Wagner was one of the pioneers of modern solid-state chemistry . He founded solid-state electrochemistry and made an important contribution to corrosion . He also described the formation of double salts (including spinel ) and investigated the tarnishing of metals using the theory of lattice defects . The theory also served to describe the conduction mechanism of the Nernst lamp .

The Wagner factor or thermodynamic factor created by him is a dimensionless number and is used in electrochemistry to describe the current distribution:

${\displaystyle W\!a={\frac {\kappa }{L}}\cdot {\frac {d\eta }{dj}}}$

• ${\displaystyle \kappa }$ Conductivity of the electrolytes [Ω ⁻¹ · m ⁻¹ ]
• ${\displaystyle {\frac {d\eta }{dj}}}$Variation of the polarization of the electrode as a function of the variation of the current density [Ω · m ² ]
• ${\displaystyle L}$The characteristic length [m]

Awards and memberships

• , 1951: Palladium Medal the Electrochemical Society
• 1952: Honorary doctorate (Dr. rer. Nat. Hc) from the Technical University of Darmstadt
• 1954: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1956: Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 1957: Willis R. Whitney Award (NACE)
• 1959: Wilhelm Exner Medal from the Austrian Trade Association
• 1959: Corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences
• 1960: Full member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences
• 1961: Bunsen commemorative coin of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry
• 1964: Carl Friedrich Gauß Medal of the Braunschweig Scientific Society
• 1965: Honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E. H.) From the Clausthal Mining Academy
• 1967: Scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry (later MPI for Biophysical Chemistry)
• 1967: Member of the National Academy of Sciences
• 1972: Heyn commemorative coin of the German Society for Metallurgy
• 1972: Honorary member of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry
• 1973: Honorary member of the mathematical and natural science class of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• 1973: Gold Medal from the American Society for Metals
• 1973: Cavallaro Médaille of the Fédération Européenne de la Corrosion
• 1973: Honorary Member of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers
• 1975: Corresponding member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society
• 1975: Honorary member of the Japan Institute of Metals

Carl Wagner Prize

The Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen donated the Carl Wagner Prize as a souvenir .

Fonts (selection)

• Thermodynamics . The doctrine of cyclical processes, physical and chemical changes and equilibria, an introduction to the thermodynamic problems of our energy and material economy by W. Schottky, H. Ulich and C. Wagner, Julius Springer publishing house, Berlin 1929.

literature

• Manfred Martin: Life and achievements of Carl Wagner, 100th birthday. In: Solid State Ionics, 152-153, December 2002, 15-17.
• Carl Wagner. In: Reports of the Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry, 95 (1991), 936-949. doi: 10.1002 / bbpc.19910950816
• Isabel Schmidt: The TH Darmstadt in the post-war period (1945–1960), dissertation, Darmstadt 2014.

Web links

• Short biography and publications of Carl Wagner at the Physics Institute of the University of Hamburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gottlieb Tesmer, Walther Müller: Honor roll of the Thomas School in Leipzig. The teachers and high school graduates of the Thomas School in Leipzig 1912–1932. Commissioned by the Thomanerbund, self-published, Leipzig 1934, p. 36.
2. ^ Carl Wagner: Methods of scientific and technical research . Bibliographical Institute Mannheim / Vienna / Zurich (BI-Wissenschaftsverlag) 1974, ISBN 3-411-01470-9 .
3. ↑ C. Wagner: Theory of the aging of precipitation by dissolving (Ostwald ripening). Zeitschrift für Elektrochemie Vol. 65, No. 7/8 (1961), pp. 581-591.
4. ^ Allen J. Bard , György Inzelt, Fritz Scholz: Electrochemical Dictionary. 16th edition, Springer, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-29550-8 , pp. 701 f.