Eduard Zintl

{{Short description|German chemist (1898–1941)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Eduard Zintl | image = Büste Eduard Zintl.jpg | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|1|21|df=y}} | birth_place = Weiden, Germany | death_date = {{death date and age|1941|1|17|1898|1|21|df=y}} | death_place = Darmstadt, Germany | residence = | field = Inorganic chemistry | work_institution = University of Munich,<br>Technische Universität Darmstadt | alma_mater = University of Munich | doctoral_advisor = Otto Hönigschmid | doctoral_students = Josef Goubeau<br>Georg Brauer | known_for = Zintl phase | prizes = | religion = | footnotes = }} '''Eduard Zintl''' (21 January 1898 – 17 January 1941) was a German chemist. He gained prominence for research on intermetallic compounds.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Intermetallische Verbindungen |author=Zintl, E. |journal=Angewandte Chemie |year=1939 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1002/ange.19390520102 |bibcode=1939AngCh..52....1Z }}</ref>

==Family background== After his family moved from Weiden and Bayreuth to Munich and after he had finished school he was drafted for military service during World War I. At the age of 21 he started studying at the University of Munich with Otto Hönigschmid. He was an excellent student, and later became an assistant for Otto Hönigschmid, head of the German atomic weight laboratory.<ref>{{cite journal | author = H. W. Kohlschütter | title = Eduard Zintl, Lehre und Forschung | journal = Naturwissenschaften | year = 1941 | volume = 29 | issue = 17 | pages = 240–244 | doi = 10.1007/BF01479156|bibcode = 1941NW.....29..241K | s2cid = 5187680 }} *{{cite journal | author = F. Laves | title = Eduard Zintls Arbeiten über die Chemie und Struktur von Legierungen | journal = Naturwissenschaften | year = 1941 | volume = 29 | issue = 17 | pages = 244–255 | doi = 10.1007/BF01479157|bibcode = 1941NW.....29..244L | s2cid = 38933231 }}</ref>

==Career== He earned his PhD in 1923, at the age of 25, with a thesis on the molar mass of bromine. He stayed with Otto Hönigschmid's group, where he was involved in the supervision of PhD students, for example Josef Goubeau and Günther Rienäcker. From 1928 till 1933 he was professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Freiburg. During this period he studied the structure of complex anions formed by metals in a solution of sodium in ammonia. [Na(NH₃)_x]⁺₄[Pb₉]^{4<nowiki>−</nowiki>} 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.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Otto Hönigschmid | author-link = Otto Hönigschmid | title = Eduard Zintls Lehrjahre in München | journal = Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft | year = 1942 | volume = 75 | issue = 5 | pages = A40–A44 | doi = 10.1002/cber.19420750532}}</ref> [[File:423080Asonly.png|thumb|left|Structure of [As₇]^3- trianionic subunit in the Zintl phase Cs₂NaAs₇.<ref>{{cite journal|title=New compounds with (As₇)^3- Clusters: Synthesis and Crystal Structures of the Zintl Phases Cs₂NaAs₇, Cs₄ZnAs₁₄ and Cs₄CdAs₁₄|author1=He, Hua |author2=Tyson, C.-T. |author3=Bobev, S. |journal=Crystals|year=2011|volume=1|issue=3|pages=87–p98|doi=10.3390/cryst1030087|doi-access=free}}</ref>]]

===Work at Darmstadt=== In 1933 he moved to a position at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, where a new building for inorganic and physical chemistry was planned and built. The research on complex anions led him to the discovery of the Zintl phases. 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.<ref>Fässler, Thomas F. (2011). Zintl Phases: Principles and Recent Developments</ref> 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<nowiki>−</nowiki>}, similar to the phosphorus molecule P₄.

==Further reading== * {{cite web|title=Eduard Zintl – discoverer of Zintl phases – World Of Chemicals|url=http://www.worldofchemicals.com/127/chemistry-articles/eduard-zintl-discoverer-of-zintl-phases.html|website=www.worldofchemicals.com|accessdate=6 November 2017}} * {{cite web|title=Eduard Zintl|url=https://memim.com/eduard-zintl.html|website=memim.com|accessdate=6 November 2017}} * {{cite book|last1=Fässler|first1=Thomas F.|title=Zintl Phases: Principles and Recent Developments|date=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783642211508|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9sRBwAAQBAJ&q=eduard+zintl+chemist&pg=PR9|accessdate=6 November 2017}} * {{cite web|last1=Allen|first1=Philip C.|title=Excursions Beyond the Zintl Border: Anionic Clusters of the Heavier Group 13 Metals|date=2002|url= https://chemistry.illinois.edu/system/files/inline-files/Allen.pdf|accessdate=8 December 2020}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

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