Volkmar Kohlschütter

Volkmar Kohlschütter (born August 29, 1874 in Forchheim , † September 10, 1938 in Bern ) was a German chemist .

Life

Volkmar Kohlschütter grew up in Saxony and attended the Princely School of St. Afra in Meißen from 1888 to 1894 . He studied chemistry for one semester at the University of Freiburg / Breisgau. After his military service in Freiberg in Saxony, he attended a summer course at Wilhelm Ostwald's institute at the University of Leipzig . Since he did not like Ostwald's direction of thought, he continued his studies with Adolf von Baeyer at the University of Munich (1895), but then turned to inorganic chemistry rather than organic. His thesis on inorganic hydroxylamine compounds (particularly in uranium acid) (title Inorganic hydroxylamine he produced) in the group of Karl Andreas Hofmann at the University of Munich, whose lecture assistant he was. His investigation of uranium compounds led him to complex chemistry. Shortly after his habilitation, he went to the University of Strasbourg together with Johannes Thiele , where he led the inorganic-chemistry classes as a private lecturer and later as an associate professor. He got inspiration from a vacation stay with Svante Arrhenius in Stockholm . In autumn 1909 he was appointed full professor for general and inorganic chemistry at the University of Bern (as well as for physical chemistry). There he worked as a teacher and researcher for almost 30 years until his death and was director of the Chemical Institute. He turned down calls to Karlsruhe and as head of research at a large chemical company. In 1925 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

He was a popular teacher who attached particular importance to clarity and the procedure from the external appearances to the general and who discussed research topics with his doctoral students at a regular round table. Volkmar Kohlschütter was the father of the chemistry professor in Darmstadt Hans Wolfgang Kohlschütter .

Act

Volkmar Kohlschütter can be regarded as the founder of topochemistry . He coined this term in 1919. This was based on his view that in chemistry not only the composition of the substances, but also the natural forms in which they occur (morphology) are important, depending on the physical-chemical conditions of their formation, what had been neglected by contemporary chemistry. He called topochemical reactions those whose course and result are determined by local conditions in a very small space (in contrast to the gas phase or solutions). Today it is part of solid-state chemistry and refers to studies that not only deal with the overall equilibrium and nature of the elementary processes, but also include the complexity that exists locally at the interfaces or inside the solid.

In 1900 he clarified the composition of uranium red , dealt with complex chemistry (complexes with double compounds of cadmium and mercury, metal nitroso complexes) and produced metal colloids by electrolytic means. He later investigated aluminum hydroxides (the prime example in which he introduced topochemical reactions) and the processes involved in the formation of crystals, especially during electrolytic deposition. Kohlschütter also dealt with aerosols with application in smoke control.

He also dealt with the search for noble gas compounds in the metal atomization of cathodes during the glow discharge - he initially suspected the decay of unstable noble gas compounds, but then joined Johannes Stark's view that it was a consequence of inelastic collisions of the noble gases with the atoms of the Was cathode. The investigations were, however, the starting point for his occupation with chemistry on solid surfaces (topochemistry) and colloid chemistry.

literature

• W. Feitknecht, obituary in communications from the Natural Research Society Bern 1939
• Entry in Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists, Harri Deutsch 1989

Fonts

• The manifestations of matter , Teubner 1917, Archives

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Volkmar Kohlschütter at academictree.org, accessed on February 24, 2018.
2. ^ W. Feitknecht: Volkmar Kohlschütter 1874-1938 , Helvetica Chimica Acta 1939, 22 , 1059-1088, doi: 10.1002 / hlca.193902201133 .
3. ↑ Otto-Albrecht Neumüller (Ed.): Römpps Chemie-Lexikon. Volume 6: T-Z. 8th revised and expanded edition. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-440-04516-1 , p. 4300.
4. ^ Brockhaus ABC Chemie , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag Leipzig 1965, p. 1426.
5. ↑ Kohlschütter on Disperses Aluminum Hydroxyd. I. In: Journal for inorganic and general chemistry. 105, 1918, pp. 1-25, doi : 10.1002 / zaac.19181050102 .