Otto Schmidt (chemist)
Franz Otto Edmund Schmidt (born September 8, 1874 in Cologne , † May 17, 1943 in Heidelberg ) was a German chemist who worked for BASF .
Schmidt was the son of a businessman and studied chemistry at the University of Bonn and the University of Zurich from 1893 . In 1898 he received his doctorate in Bonn and was then assistant to Eugen Bamberger (his doctoral supervisor) in Zurich and from 1901 assistant to Richard Anschütz in Bonn. In 1904 he became a private lecturer in Bonn and from 1907 he was a chemist at BASF. In 1921 he received power of attorney there and in 1925 he became director. After completing his habilitation in Darmstadt in 1931, he retired at BASF ( IG Farben ) in 1932 , but still worked in the main laboratory in Ludwigshafen am Rhein until 1938, doing theoretical work on quantum chemistry.
In 1905 at the University of Bonn, Schmidt had developed a method of determining the constitution of azo dyes through oxidation with nitric acid.
At BASF, he initially dealt with dyes and then developed processes for the catalytic hydrogenation of aromatics and non-aromatics, for example nitrobenzene for aniline production. He dealt with the polymerization of butadiene and the production of artificial tannins from the condensation of cresols and the subsequent production of a sulfur derivative.
In 1936 he set up a rule for carbon double bonds (strengthening the next single bond, weakening the next but one) and established it quantum mechanically. He also dealt generally with electron distribution and energy ratios in aromatics from a quantum mechanical point of view. In doing so, he referred to works by Hans Hellmann and Erich Hückel (which were hardly noticed in Germany at the time).
In 1942 he investigated possible connections between the constitution of chemical compounds and carcinogenic properties, with naphthalene in particular in the spotlight as an example.
literature
- Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 383
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Jug, Two Hundred Years of Development of Theoretical Chemistry in German-speaking Countries, Springer 2015, p. 31
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schmidt, Otto |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schmidt, Franz Otto Edmund |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 8, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 17, 1943 |
| Place of death | Heidelberg |