Fritz Feigl

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Fritz Feigl (born May 15, 1891 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † January 23, 1971 in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil ) was an Austrian chemist . He has taught at the universities of Vienna and Rio de Janeiro. Feigl is considered to be the founder of analytical spot tests and has thus contributed to the development of some analytical rapid tests.

Life

Born and raised in a middle-class family in Vienna, Feigl developed his cultural interest in music and literature. He found physical activity in skiing, mountaineering and walks in the Vienna Woods. Fritz Feigl studied at the Technical University and graduated in 1914 as a chemical engineer.

In 1914 Fritz Feigl joined the Austro-Hungarian Army as a volunteer and was injured on the Russian front in World War I. He received several awards and was promoted to captain. After the war, he did his doctorate in 1920 with Wilhelm Schlenk on the subject of “On the use of spot reactions in qualitative analysis ” . Feigl pursued an excellent academic career, which made him assistant professor in 1920, professor of inorganic analytical chemistry in 1935 and professor in 1937. During this time he completed ten doctoral students. Fritz Feigl founded the adult education center , where, until his emigration in 1938 , he gave lectures three times a week for those returning from the war at the Ottakring Volksheim . He also gave a course for young women, where he met 17-year-old Regine Freier.

After Regine received her doctorate in Feigl's group, they married. The only son from the marriage was Hans E. Feigl, who also became a chemist and died of cancer at the age of 28. When Austria was annexed to Germany by the National Socialists in 1938, Feigl, a German-Sudete of Jewish descent, had to give up his chair at the University of Vienna. Feigl and his family first emigrated to Switzerland and then to Belgium, where he was able to work as a consultant for photo developers at Gevaert for a while . In Ghent he was even able to continue teaching.

There Feigl was also invited to teach and research at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland . Grateful for this offer, however, he had to refuse, as the trip to Scotland with Jewish travel and identity papers was very difficult or even impossible.

After the invasion of Belgium by the German Wehrmacht in 1940, Fritz Feigl was brought to the French Perpignan concentration camp. Regine and her son were able to escape because they wanted to pick up Hans in Limburg on the Dutch border, where he went to school. Mother and son moved to Toulouse, where they were able to get a Brazilian visa for the three of them from the Brazilian ambassador in Vichy . Fritz and Regine planned to escape from the concentration camp and immigrated to Portugal . Fortunately, with the help of Lieutenant Baocin, they were able to overcome the border barriers on the Spanish border with neutral Portugal. From Lisbon they went to Brazil on the Serpa Pinto refugee ship and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on November 29, 1940. In 1944, Fritz Feigl took on Brazilian citizenship, which he was granted early thanks to his work.

Feigl turned down several offers for US chairs in order to be able to stay in Rio, the city he loved. Until his death in 1971 he worked on new analytical methods. He was sometimes affectionately called the “Bahian” by his staff .

In 2003 the Fritz-Feigl-Weg in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after him.

plant

Since his doctoral thesis in 1920 “On the use of spot reactions in qualitative analysis” Feigl worked tirelessly on the further development of simple detection reactions . Fritz Feigl became known as the founder and promoter of spot analysis , a simple and effective method in which the substance to be analyzed is applied in small quantities to a filter paper and converted with individual drops of reagents. This method is still common today because it delivers relatively reliable results without the use of instruments. So Fritz Feigl has worked with its employees thousands of simple spot tests that can ultimately as a forerunner of today usual laboratory rapid tests ( urine test strips , drug rapid test , influenza rapid test , etc.) may be called.

As early as 1940, the head of the mining laboratory of the Geological Service, MAd Silva Pinto, instructed the professor of analytical chemistry at the Brazilian University in Rio, Coriolano José Pereira da Silva, to select and train personnel to introduce Feigl's spot analysis. Coriolano had learned of Feigl's arrival and informed Pinto about it. He immediately tried to get Feigl to work in the laboratory. He performed his main work in Brazil at the Brazilian Mining Laboratory, which at that time was subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture. Fritz Feigl spent his scientific routine in an initially sparsely furnished chamber, which was later generously expanded. As a tireless worker, he only kept the start of work, rarely the end of the day.

One of the first projects entrusted to him was the industrial production of caffeine from concentrated coffee extracts. For this purpose, the Alka company was founded in Santo André under the technical management of Regine Feigl. During the three years of production, 48,000 tons of coffee were processed into 500 tons of caffeine. In times of war, caffeine was an important raw material for the production of Coca-Cola . The Feigls came to their first small prosperity mainly because of Regine's business acumen.

With the end of the Second World War , the European market reopened for the import of coffee. However, the coffee price rose so much that the Alka could no longer work profitably. In a further project in 1946 Feigl developed the extraction of phosphates from Maranhão apatite for the production of artificial fertilizers. Although the process was not used economically straight away, a patent was applied for in the name of the mining laboratory in 1946 . This laboratory, which he directed, was highly productive in the scientific field and enjoyed international recognition. In cooperation with many national and international scientists, countless new researchers and scientists have been trained and educated in the laboratory. Feigl left behind a large work with hundreds of publications, several books, texts and monographs in several languages.

In 1949 his most famous work “QUÍMICA DE REAÇÕES ESPECÍFICAS” (Chemistry of Specific Reactions) was published in Brazil.

His extraordinary ability to exploit various properties of chemical reactions has opened up a new field of interest to other branches of chemistry. Feigl was probably one of the most important chemists in analytical chemistry of the 20th century. He saw chemistry as a single science, the areas of which are inextricably linked. "In analytical chemistry we regularly receive results which are also of great interest for the other areas."

Many new compounds and reactions in complex chemistry and physical chemistry were discovered in the development of analytical methods. Fritz Feigl viewed analytics as an ideal field of activity for experimental chemistry, which differs from the other areas only in its analytical goal, but otherwise uses the same reactions.

Masking and unmasking in chemistry - selectivity in chemistry

Feigl introduced the concepts for masking and unmasking and explained them in more detail in his book “Specific, Selective and Specific Reactions” . These reactions became very important for complex chemistry.

Selective functionalization for the development of new reactions Fritz Feigl synthesized new reagents in the mining laboratory with the aim of inserting specific functional groups. This work assumes a fundamental knowledge of functional groups, orbital jumps of electrons and molecular vibrations.

The influence of the capillary force of the filter paper on the detection of the components in the spot method When developing the spot method, Feigl used the capillary force of the filter paper to separate ions. This method was later used in thin layer chromatography. Some of the rapid analytical tests offered by various manufacturers today are based on Feigl's developments.

Awards

Fritz Feigl Prize

  • In Brazil, the CRQ-IV (4th Regional Chemistry Association) has been awarding the Friz Feigl Prize (Prêmio Fritz Feigl) to honor and promote chemists since 1996. The winners receive a certificate, a medal and prize money (in 2005 it was 12,000 euros).
  • ( ASAC ) The Fritz Feigl Prize is sponsored by Bruker in 2012.

Publications

  • Qualitative Analysis by Spot Tests. 2nd Edition. Elsevier, Amsterdam 1939.
  • Chemistry of Specific, Selective and Sensitive Reactions. Academic Press, New York 1949.
  • Laboratory Manual of Spot Tests. (Trad. Ralph E. Oesper), Academic Press, New York 1943.

literature

  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Eds.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945. Vol II, Saur, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 285.
  • Gerhard Oberkofler / Peter Goller: Fritz Feigl (1891–1971). Notes and documents on a scientific biography. Edited by the Central Physics Library in Vienna. Vienna 1994.
  • Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 1: A-I. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 304 (No. 2360).
  • Feigl, Fritz , in: Handbook of Austrian Authors of Jewish Origin, 18th to 20th Century , 2002, p. 304

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Fritz Feigl at academictree.org, accessed on February 4, 2018.
  2. ↑ adulteducation.at personal page on Fritz Feigl, accessed on September 1, 2009.
  3. ↑ asac.at: Fritz Feigl Prize
personal data
SURNAME Feigl, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian chemist, spot method
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1971
Place of death Rio de Janeiro , Brazil