Karl Gleu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Gleu  (born March 11, 1901 in Schivelbein , † January 20, 1986 in Butzbach ) was a German chemist. From 1942 to 1966 he was Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . He did pioneering work in the fields of chemiluminescence , complex chemistry, and radiochemistry , which led him to important applications in quantitative and qualitative chemical analysis. Karl Gleu was one of the few chemists who already used group theoretical symmetry considerations in research during his time.

Life

Karl Gleu received his doctorate in 1923 under Adolf Sieverts (1874–1947) in Frankfurt am Main, on a topic in the field of chemiluminescence. In the same year Sieverts received a call to the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena as a full professor for inorganic chemistry, which included the appointment as director of the chemical institute. Gleu followed his teacher to Jena and quickly gained a reputation as a skilled experimenter and accomplished theorist, whose scientific work received great attention in the professional world. He completed his habilitation in 1932 and received the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize in 1941 for his scientific achievements.

In 1942 Karl Gleu was appointed to the chair for inorganic chemistry in Frankfurt am Main, where he worked as a university professor, institute director and researcher until his retirement. Despite the difficulties arising from the war and the post-war period, he made important discoveries in Frankfurt. As one of the first chemists, Gleu used radiochemical methods in his research and showed new ways of applying them.

Karl Gleu was an outstanding pedagogue who was able to convincingly convey the theoretical basics of chemistry through his extensive physical and mathematical knowledge.

Act

As part of his chemiluminescence research, K. Gleu and K. Pfannstiehl discovered in 1936 the catalytic effect of hemin on the reaction of luminol with oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, which is associated with a bluish appearance of light. The catalytic effect of hemin is based on the complexly bound divalent iron. The luminol reaction made it possible to detect traces of blood up to a dilution of 1: 10,000,000. Since then, the luminol reaction has been a common detection method for blood in forensic chemistry and forensics. In connection with his diverse work in the field of complex chemistry, K. Glau was the first to succeed in determining the exact atomic weight of ruthenium.

The exploitation of complex chemical facts also led him to new approaches in analytical chemistry, in particular the development of useful methods of chemical separation in order to separate any element quickly, safely and easily from all the others.

Due to his extensive knowledge of both complex chemistry and mathematical group theory, K. Gleu was an important advisor to H. Hartmann and F.-E. Ilse in establishing the ligand field theory for complex compounds. In 1977 H. Hartmann acknowledged the role of K. Gleu in the development of the ligand field theory in a historical review.

After 1945, together with R. Schwab, he investigated the importance of disubstituted dithiocarbamates as precipitation reagents for metals, which represented a significant advance in the wet chemical analysis of that time. This made it possible to carry out separation processes without toxic aids such as hydrogen sulphide and with significantly less starting material, which is particularly important with precious metals. Because of their excellent sensitivity, these reagents have also been used by MERCK since the 1960s for trace analysis as part of the quality control of "suprapur" reagents. The Gleu assistant and later university professor K.-H. König (1926–2006) continued this line of research and developed further reagents of this type.

Karl Gleu's life's work at the interface between analytical and physical chemistry illustrates that innovations in the analytical field also require thorough knowledge of the physico-chemical principles of molecular behavior.

literature

"Professor Gleu turns 70 today" Appreciation in the "Butzbacher Zeitung" (the "Wetterauer Boten") on March 11, 1971

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gleu, K .; Pfannstiehl, KJ Prakt. Chem. 46 ,. 137 (1936)
  2. ↑ 25 years of ligand field theory , (pdf; 607 kB)
  3. ↑ Gleu, K; Schwab.R: "Disubstituted Dithiocarbamates (Carbates) as Precipitation Reagents for Metals" Angew. Chemistry 62, 320 (1950)
  4. ↑ personal communication from Gleu student K. Marquard
personal data
SURNAME Gleu, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Schivelbein
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1986
Place of death Butzbach