Arne Magnéli (6 December 1914 – 22 July 1996) was a Swedish chemist and crystallographer known for his work on the

structure determination A chemical structure of a molecule is a spatial arrangement of its atoms and their chemical bonds. Its determination includes a chemist's specifying the molecular geometry and, when feasible and necessary, the electronic structure of the target m ...

transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. The lanthanide and actinid ...

oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound containing at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion (anion bearing a net charge of −2) of oxygen, an O2− ion with oxygen in the oxidation st ...

s and

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

s, including the study into their

homologous series In organic chemistry, a homologous series is a sequence of compounds with the same functional group and similar chemical properties in which the members of the series differ by the number of repeating units they contain. This can be the length of ...

and nonstoichiometric phenomenon.

Education and career

Magnéli studied at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

and graduated with a Licentiate in 1941. He moved to

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

to conduct his graduate research under Gunnar Hägg, obtaining his PhD in 1950 for the study on tungsten bronzes. He took up a teaching position at

in 1953, and later became the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at the university until his retirement in 1980. From his research into the structures of transition metal oxides, Magnéli developed the concept of ''recurrent dislocations'', which nowadays is known as crystallographic shear. The Magnéli phases of transition metal oxides, such as nonstoichiometric

tungsten oxide Tungsten has several oxidation states, and therefore oxides: * Tungsten(III) oxide * Tungsten(IV) oxide, also known as tungsten dioxide * Tungsten(VI) oxide, also known as tungsten trioxide * Tungsten pentoxide {{Short pages monitor