Biography:Julius Tafel
Julius Tafel | |
|---|---|
 Julius Tafel | |
| Born | 2 June 1862 Courrendlin, Switzerland |
| Died | 2 September 1918 (aged 56) |
| Alma mater | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
| Known for | Tafel reaction Tafel equation |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrochemistry |
| Institutions | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
| Doctoral advisor | Hermann Emil Fischer |
Julius Tafel (2 June 1862 – 2 September 1918) was a German chemist and electrochemist.
Early life and education
Julius Tafel was born in the village of Choindez in Courrendlin, Switzerland on 2 June 1862. Tafel's father, Julius Tafel Sr. (1827-1893) studied chemistry at the University of Tübingen and became a director of Von Roll’s iron and steel works located in Choindez in 1856, and then took a top management position in steel works located in Gerlafingen in 1863.[1]
Tafel attended the Realgymnasium in Stuttgart and Nuremberg, then studied chemistry from 1880 at the University of Zurich, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the University of Erlangen. In 1884, he obtained his Ph.D. under Emil Fischer, who had joined the University of Erlangen in 1882. Tafel followed Fischer to the University of Würzburg in 1885 as his private assistant and completed his habilitation in 1888.[1]
Work
He worked first with Emil Fischer on the field of organic chemistry, but changed to electrochemistry after his work with Wilhelm Ostwald. He is known for the discovery of an electrosynthetic rearrangement reaction of various alkylated ethyl acetoacetates to form hydrocarbons, now called the Tafel rearrangement, and the Tafel equation, which relates the rate of an electrochemical reaction to the overpotential. He is also credited for the discovery of the catalytic mechanism of hydrogen evolution (the Tafel mechanism). Tafel retired aged 48 due to ill health but continued to write book reviews until his death.[2]
Death
Tafel suffered from insomnia and eventually had a complete nervous breakdown. He committed suicide in Munich in 1918.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Electrochemistry Encyclopedia -- Tafel: his life and science". https://knowledge.electrochem.org/encycl/art-t01-tafel.htm.
- ↑ G., Compton, R. (2011). Understanding voltammetry. Banks, Craig E. (2nd ed.). London: Imperial College Press. pp. 47–49. ISBN 978-1848165861. OCLC 676743565.
- Julius Tafel, Hans Hahl (1907). "Vollständige Reduktion des Benzylacetessigesters". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 40 (3): 3312–3318. doi:10.1002/cber.190704003102. https://zenodo.org/record/1426235.
- Bruno Emmert; Stock (1918). "Julius Tafel". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 51 (2): 1686–1687. doi:10.1002/cber.19180510254. https://zenodo.org/record/1426645.
- K. Müller (1969). "Julius Tafel". J. Res. Inst. Catalysis, Hokkaido Univ. 17: 54–75.
- Julius Tafel (1905). "Julius Tafel". Z. Phys. Chem. 50: 668, 676, 689.
- G.T. Burstein (2005). "A Century of Tafel's Equation: 1905–2005 A Commemorative Issue of Corrosion Science". Corrosion Science 47 (12): 2858–2870. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2005.07.002.
External links
- "Julius Tafel". Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Chemistry. http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/tafel.html.
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