Julius Tafel (2 June 1862 – 2 September 1918) was a Swiss

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

and

electrochemist Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...

Work

He worked first with

Hermann Emil Fischer Hermann Emil Louis Fischer (; 9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of dra ...

on the field of organic chemistry, but changed to

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...

after his work with

Wilhelm Ostwald Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (; 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhen ...

. He is known for the discovery of an electrosynthetic rearrangement reaction of various

alkylated Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting al ...

ethyl acetoacetates to form

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...

s, now called the Tafel rearrangement, and the

Tafel equation The Tafel equation is an equation in electrochemical kinetics relating the rate of an electrochemical reaction to the overpotential. The Tafel equation was first deduced experimentally and was later shown to have a theoretical justification. The ...

, which relates the rate of an electrochemical reaction to the

overpotential In electrochemistry, overpotential is the potential difference (voltage) between a half-reaction's thermodynamically determined reduction potential and the potential at which the redox event is experimentally observed. The term is directly rela ...

. He is also credited for the discovery of the

catalytic Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

mechanism of hydrogen evolution (the Tafel mechanism). Tafel retired aged 48 due to ill health, but continued to write book reviews until his death.

Life

Tafel suffered from insomnia and eventually had a complete nervous breakdown. He committed suicide in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

in 1918.

References

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External links

* * 1862 births 1918 suicides Electrochemists Swiss chemists Suicides in Germany Swiss emigrants to Germany {{chemist-stub