Nikolai Semyonovich Kurnakov

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Nikolai Semyonovich Kurnakov on a Soviet postage stamp from 1951

Nikolai Semjonowitsch Kurnakow ( Russian: Никола́й Семёнович Курнако́в ; born December 6, 1860 in Nolinsk , Vyatka Governorate ; † March 19, 1941 in Barwicha , Soviet Union ) was a Russian chemist who became internationally known for his work in the field of physical-chemical analysis . He was also one of the founders of the Soviet platinum industry. The Kurnakow test is named after him and is still used to distinguish between cis and trans isomers of divalent platinum compounds; Cisplatin is used against rapidly growing tumor cells.

Life

Kurnakow was born in Nolinsk , Vyatka Governorate . He attended high school in Nizhny Novgorod and later studied at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg . He published his first article on alum crystallization and sodium thioantimonate in 1882. In the same year he graduated as a mining engineer.

During a trip through France , Germany and Austria , Kurnakow studied salt production in several places. The scientific work during his trip became the basis of his doctoral thesis, which he completed in 1893.

Career

After his doctorate, he worked for several years at the mining institute, mainly on the creation of salt and potash deposits as well as their exploitation and processing. In 1893 he became Professor of Inorganic Chemistry for his work on the reaction of cis and trans platinum complexes with thiourea , now known as the Kurnakov test . In 1902 he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute , which he had founded together with Dmitri Mendeleev and Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Mensutkin . He held this position until 1930. His field of work extended from geology to physical chemistry and metallurgy , where he, like Gustav Tammann, contributed significantly to the foundations of modern metallurgy, with intermetallic compounds as one of his focuses. Kurnakov's most famous students included AW Nikolayev , GB Boki , GJ Zhukovsky and WA Nemilov .

In his later years, his research focused on the field of platinum chemistry and platinum production. He received numerous prizes, including the Lenin Prize in 1928, the Mendeleev Prize in 1936, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1939 and the Stalin Prize in 1941. The University of Moscow honored him in 1909 with the award of the Doctor honoris causa . In 1923 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . After the death of his wife in 1940 his health deteriorated and he died on March 19, 1941 in a sanatorium near Barwicha .

The mineral kurnakowite was named after him in 1940 in his honor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NT Kuznetsov: NS Kurnakov's Contribution to Coordination Chemistry . In: Russian Journal of Inorganic Chemistry . 55, No. 11, 2010, pp. 1777-1783. doi : 10.1134 / S0036023610110033 .
  2. ↑ N. Kurnakow: About complex metal bases; First treatise . In: Journal for Practical Chemistry . 50, 1894, pp. 481-507. doi : 10.1002 / prac.18940500144 .
  3. ^ A b George B. Kauffman : Nikolaĭ Semenovich Kurnakov, the reaction (1893) and the man (1860-1941) a ninety-year retrospective view . In: Polyhedron . 2, No. 9, 1983, pp. 855-863. doi : 10.1016 / S0277-5387 (00) 81400-X .
  4. ^ Jack H. Westbrook: Historical Sketch . In: Intermetallic Compounds - Principles and Practice, Vol 1 - Principles (Ed. JH Westbrook, RL Fleischer). John Wiley & Sons , Chichester 1995, pp. 3-18, ISBN 0471942197 .
  5. ↑ Nikolai Kurnakow - biography. Retrieved May 13, 2018 (Russian).
  6. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 142.
  7. ↑ George B. Kauffman : The Life and Work of Nikolai Semenovich Kurnakov . In: Platinum Metals Review . 26, No. 3, 1982, pp. 129-133.
  8. ^ MN Godlevsky: Kurnakovite, a new Borate . In: Comptes Rendus (Doklady) de l'Académie des Science de l'URSS . 28, No. 7, 1940, pp. 638-640.
  9. ↑ NT Kuznetsov, VM Novotortsev: Nikolai Semenovich Kurnakov (to the 150th Anniversary of His Birthday) . In: Russian Journal of Inorganic Chemistry . 55, No. 11, 2010, pp. 1668-1679. doi : 10.1134 / S0036023610110021 .
personal data
SURNAME Kurnakov, Nikolai Semjonowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Курнако́в, Никола́й Семёнович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian chemist
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Nolinsk , Vyatka Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1941
Place of death Barwicha , Soviet Union