Oswald Helmuth Göhring, also known as Otto Göhring, (1889) was a German chemist who, with his teacher Kasimir Fajans, co-discovered the chemical element

protactinium Protactinium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pa and atomic number 91. It is a dense, radioactive, silvery-gray actinide metal which readily reacts with oxygen, water vapor, and inorganic acids. It forms various chemical compounds, in which p ...

in 1913.

Discovery of protactinium

Protactinium was first identified in 1913 by Kasimir Fajans and Oswald Helmuth Göhring at the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public university, public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Ka ...

. The new element was named brevium due to the brief half-life of the isotope specific studied, Protactinium-234 (234 Pa). Fajans and Göhring also worked to identify as many

isotopes Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), but ...

of the new element as possible, and also to publicize their discovery—a process that was hampered by the beginning of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1914, Göhring was conscripted into the army. Presumably he perished during the war; he is listed as the author of no further scientific articles or publications after 1915. A stable isotope of this element was discovered in 1918, and thus the name was changed to protoactinium, which was abbreviated in 1949 to its present name, protactinium.

Publications

* Oswald Helmuth Göhring: ''Über das neue Element Brevium und Versuche zur Auffindung seiner Isotopen.'' (''About the new element brevium and attempts to locate its isotopes''). PhD Thesis, Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule zu Fridericiana, 1914. 58 p. * K. Fajans and OH Göhring, "Über das Uran X2-das neue Element der Uranreihe." ("Uranium X2, the new element in the uranium series") Phys. Zeitschrift, 1913, 14, 877-884.

References

* Elisabeth Rona: How it came about: radioactivity, nuclear physics, atomic energy ORAU Series 137. Oak Ridge Associated Universities, 1978. * https://books.google.com/books?id=YpEiPPFlNAAC&pg=PA228 Radioactivity: introduction and history. Michael F. L'Annunziata. Elsevier, 2007. . P. 228 * Protactinium. Elementymology & Elements Multidict. Peter van der Krogt. * Visual Chemistry. Protactinium. The Open Door Web Site. * Protactinium. Dictionary 3.0 * Brevium Element Über das neue und zur Versuche Auffindung Isotopen seiner. Worldcat. * Jeremy Bernstein. Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007. p. 40. *

Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger (born 29 May 1939 in Insterburg, East Prussia) is a German chemist, inventor, and author. He was Research Director at BASF (from 1990 to 1997), and President of the German Chemical Society. Career Hans-Jürgen Quadbec ...

. World of the Elements: Elements of the World. Trad. José Oliveira. Bad Durkheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2007. p. 77. * Mary and Henry M. Elvira Weeks Leicester. Discovery of the Elements, 7th edition. Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968. p. 783. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gohring, Oswald Helmuth 1889 births 1910s deaths Year of death uncertain 20th-century German chemists Discoverers of chemical elements German military personnel killed in World War I