Emil Zacharias

Adolph Emil Zacharias (born January 3, 1867 in Leipzig , † May 14, 1944 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German chemist .

Life

Zacharias attended the humanistic Thomas School in Leipzig until 1887 . He then studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig and was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD.

He was a leading researcher in organic chlorination chemistry . In 1904 Zacharias began work on the chlorination products of acetylene . In 1912/13, together with the chemists Fritz Klatte and Adolf Rollett in Bitterfeld , he invented the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production process , which was first produced in 1835 by Henri Victor Regnault . This large-scale synthesis process of vinyl chloride from acetylene and hydrogen chloride in the gas phase in the presence of mercury (II) chloride was patented by Klatte and Zacharias in 1912 (DRP 278 249). From the 1930s it was used by IG Farben AG and replaced in 1956 by the DOW process.

Zacharias was initially authorized signatory and from 1916 head of the Mainthal chemicals plant at the Griesheim-Elektron chemical factory . From 1924 to 1930 he was plant manager in Bitterfeld . Zacharias was for many years a board member of the chemical factory Griesheim-Elektron and the IG Farben as well as a member of the Association of German Chemists VDCh (since 1912).

Fonts (selection)

• On the action of ammonia on substituted o-amidobenzoic acid esters. In: Journal für Praktische Chemie 43 (1891), 432-450. doi : 10.1002 / prac.18910430145 (= also dissertation, University of Leipzig 1891)

literature

• Emil Zacharias . In: Frauke Gränitz, Haik Thomas Porada, Günther Schönfelder (eds.): Bitterfeld and the lower Muldetal: A regional inventory in the Bitterfeld, Wolfen, Jeßnitz, Raguhn, Graefenhainchen and Brehna area. 2nd edition, Böhlau, Cologne [u. a.] 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-03803-8 , p. 340.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Sachse , Karl Ramshorn, Reinhart Herz: The teachers of the Thomasschule in Leipzig 1832-1912. The high school graduates of the Thomas School in Leipzig 1845–1912 . BG Teubner Verlag, Leipzig 1912, p. 77.