Simon Zeisel

Simon Zeisel (born April 10, 1854 in Lomnitz , † January 1, 1933 in Vienna ) was an Austrian chemist.

Zeisel was the son of a craftsman and studied chemistry from 1874 at the University of Vienna with his doctorate in 1879. He stayed as an assistant at the university and was a private lecturer after his habilitation in 1887. In 1891 he became professor of chemistry and agricultural chemistry at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. 1900/01 he was rector. In 1925 he retired. A new BOKU university building in Muthgasse was named after him.

He dealt with Adolf Lieben with the condensation of aldehydes and in 1883 determined the correct gross formula of colchicine with the help of the method named after him for the quantitative determination of methoxyl groups (Zeisel methoxyl determination 1885, also Zeisel test ). He also demonstrated the keto-enol tautomerism in phenols such as resorcinol . He also dealt with agricultural chemistry (various analytical questions such as determination of furaldehyde in the extraction from pentoses and glycerol in wine with iodides ).

The Zeisel test (also Zeisel reaction) is used for the qualitative determination of esters or ethers . The sample is mixed with acetic acid and hydrogen iodide and heated. If the result is positive, the vapors contain alkyl iodide, which turns a test strip with mercury (II) nitrate yellow or red. A variant can also quantitatively determine the number of methoxyl groups. Example:

Fonts

• On a method for the quantitative detection of methoxyl, monthly books for chemistry and related parts of other sciences, Volume 6, 1885, pp. 989-997
• For quantitative evidence of Methoxyl, monthly books for chemistry and related parts of other sciences, Volume 7, 1886, pp. 406-409

literature

• Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 465