Richard Adolf

Zsigmondy, Richard Adolf, 1865-1929, Austrian-German chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Munich, 1889. Zsigmondy was a lecturer at the Univ. of Munich (1887-1893) and at the Univ. of Graz (1893-97), then worked as an industrial chemist at the Schott Glass Manufacturing Company (1897-1900) and as a private lecturer (1900-1907). Zsigmondy then taught at the Univ. of Göttingen until he retired in 1929. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925 for his work in colloid chemistry. Zsigmondy demonstrated the heterogeneous nature of colloid solutions, gluelike systems that consist of submicroscopic particles dispersed in another substance. He also developed the ultramicroscope, which enables researchers to study the tiny particles in colloids by illuminating them with a strong beam of light perpendicular to the optical axis of the microscope.

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Richard Adolf Zsigmondy

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (April 1, 1865 - September 23, 1929 ) was an Austrian-German chemist of Hungarian ancestry who studied colloids. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925. The Zsigmondy crater on the moon is named in his honor.

Biography

Early life

Zsigmondy was born in Vienna, Austrian Empire (now Austria) to Irma von Szakmary and Adolf Zsigmondy Sr., who had been a scientist and had invented surgical instruments in the field of dentistry. He was brought up by his mother after his father's early death in 1880 and received a comprehensive education while nevertheless enjoying hobbies such as climbing and mountaineering with his siblings. His brother Karl Zsigmondy became a notable mathematician in Vienna. In high school he developed an interest in natural science, especially in chemistry and physics and started to carry out experiments in his own home laboratory.

Education

His academic career began at the University of Vienna Medical Faculty, but soon moved on to the Technical University of Vienna and later to the University of Munich in order to study chemistry. In Munich his teacher was Wilhelm von Miller (1848-1899), where he started his scientific career by concluding research on indene and receiving his Ph.D. in 1889.

Career

Zsigmondy left organic chemistry and joined the physics group of August Kundt at the University of Berlin and finished his habilitation at the University of Graz in 1893.

Because of his kowledge about glass and its colouring in 1897 the Schott Glass munufactory offered him a job which he accepted. He invented the Jenaer Milchglas and conducted some research on the red Rubby glass.

Zsigmondy left Schott Glass in 1900 but staid in Jena as privat lecturer to conduct his research. Together with the optical instrument manufacturer Zeiss he developed the slit ultramicroscope.

His scientific career continued in 1908 at the University of Göttingen as professor for inorganic chemistry where he remained the rest of his professional career. In 1925 Zsigmondy received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on colloids during his time in Graz and Jena.

Scientific research

Even before Zsigmondy finished his PhD thesis in organic chemistry he published research on the clouring of glass with silver salts and dissolved silver particles which he recovered by dissolving the glass in hydrofluoric acid.

During his work in Graz Zsigmondy accomplished his most notable research work, the work on the chemistry of colloids (a certain coloured glass). The exact mechanism which yields the red colour of the Cranberry or Ruby glass was a result of his studies of colloids In later years he worked on gold hydrosol and used them to characterize protein solutions During his time in Jena he developed the slit ultramicroscope.

Private life

During his time in Jena he married Laura Luise, née Müller. Two daughters, Annemarie and Käthe, resulted from this marriage. Zsigmondy died only a few years after retirement in 1929 in Göttingen, Germany