Eduard Zintl (21 January 1898 – 17 January 1941) was a German chemist. He gained prominence for research on

intermetallic compound An intermetallic (also called an intermetallic compound, intermetallic alloy, ordered intermetallic alloy, and a long-range-ordered alloy) is a type of metallic bonding, metallic alloy that forms an ordered solid-state Chemical compound, compoun ...

Family background

After his family moved from Weiden and

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and after he had finished school he was drafted for military service during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. At the age of 21 he started studying at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

with

Otto Hönigschmid Otto Hönigschmid (13 March 1878 in Hořovice – 14 October 1945 in Munich) was a Czech/Austrian chemist. He published the first widely accepted experimental proof of isotopes along with Stefanie Horovitz. Throughout his career he worked to ...

. He was an excellent student, and later became an assistant for

, head of the German atomic weight laboratory.

Career

He earned his PhD in 1923, at the age of 25, with a thesis on the molar mass of bromine. He stayed with

's group, where he was involved in the supervision of PhD students, for example

Josef Goubeau Josef Goubeau (31 March 1901 in Augsburg, Germany – 18 October 1990 in Stuttgart) was a German chemist. Life and work Goubeau studied chemistry at the University of Munich starting from 1921 and attained a doctorate there 1926 on the atomic we ...

and

Günther Rienäcker Günther, Guenther, Ginther, Gunther, and the variants Günter, Guenter, Guenther, Ginter, and Gunter, are Germanic names derived from ''Gunthere, Gunthari'', composed of '' *gunþiz'' "battle" (Old Norse ''gunnr'') and ''heri, hari'' "army". Gu ...

. From 1928 till 1933 he was professor of inorganic chemistry at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

. During this period he studied the structure of

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

anions An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

formed by metals in a solution of

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

. a(NH₃)_xsup>+₄ b₉sup>4− is one of the examples he discovered. Working in an atomic weight laboratory as a student assistant had provided him a lot of experience with chemical elements and how they react with each other. He noted that the atomic volume contraction between these compounds were formed and it could indicate cation formation. 423080Asonly

Work at Darmstadt

In 1933 he moved to a position at the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt ...

, where a new building for inorganic and physical chemistry was planned and built. The research on complex anions lead him to the discovery of the

Zintl phase In chemistry, a Zintl phase is a product of a reaction between a group 1 (alkali metal) or group 2 (alkaline earth metal) and main group metal or metalloid (from groups 13, 14, 15, or 16). It is characterized by intermediate metallic/ ionic bondin ...

s. The structure of Zintl phases were ionic, and the structure of the anion (aka Zintl ion) could result an electronic state. His study focused on intermetallic compounds and how the electron could be transferred from a more electropositive metal.Fässler, Thomas F. (2011). Zintl Phases: Principles and Recent Developments In the Zintl phase the structure of the Zintl ion (polyanion) should be similar to an isoelectronic element. For example, in Na₂Tl the polyanion is tetrahedral (Tl₄)⁸⁻ similar to the phosphorus molecule P₄.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zintl, Eduard 1898 births 1941 deaths 20th-century German chemists Technische Universität Darmstadt faculty People from Weiden in der Oberpfalz German military personnel of World War I

Family background

Career

Work at Darmstadt

Further reading

References