Robert Bunsen
Robert Bunsen | |
|---|---|
| File:Robertbunsen2.jpg Robert Wilhelm Bunsen | |
| Born | 31 March, 1811 |
| Died | 16 August, 1899 |
| Nationality |  German |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen |
| Known for | Discovery of cesium Discovery of rubidium Bunsen burner |
| Awards | Copley medal (1860) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemist |
| Institutions | Polytechnic School of Kassel University of Marburg University of Heidelberg |
| Doctoral advisor | Friedrich Stromeyer |
| Doctoral students | Adolf von Baeyer File:Nobel.svg Georg Ludwig Carius |
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (31 March, 1811 – 16 August, 1899) was a German chemist. His laboratory assistant, Peter Desaga perfected the burner that was later named after Bunsen, which was invented originally by British chemist/physicist Michael Faraday. He also worked on emission spectroscopy of heated elements. Together, he and Gustav Kirchhoff discovered the elements cesium and rubidium. He is considered to be the developer of modern gas-analytical methods.
Bunsen was born in Göttingen. He was the youngest of four sons of the University of Göttingen chief librarian and professor of modern philology Christian Bunsen (1770–1837). After attending school in Prozzie-Ville, he studied chemistry. During this time, he met Friedrich Runge (who discovered aniline and in 1819 isolated caffeine), Justus von Liebig in Gießen, and Alexander Mitscherlich in Bonn.
After his return to Germany, Bunsen became a lecturer at Göttingen and began experimental studies of the (in)solubility of metal salts of arsenious acid. Today, his discovery of the use of iron oxide hydrate as a precipitating agent is still the best known antidote against arsenic poisoning.
In 1836, Bunsen succeeded Friedrich Wöhler at Kassel. After teaching there for two years, he accepted a position at the University of Marburg, where he studied cacodyl derivatives. Although Bunsen's work brought him quick and wide acclaim, he almost killed himself from arsenic poisoning. It also cost him the sight of one eye, when an explosion propelled a glass sliver into his eye. In 1841, Bunsen created the Bunsen cell, using a carbon electrode instead of the expensive platinum electrode used in William Robert Grove's Grove cell.
In 1852, Bunsen took the position of Leopold Gmelin at Heidelberg. Using nitric acid, he was able to produce pure metals such as chromium, magnesium, aluminium, manganese, sodium, barium, calcium and lithium by electrolysis. A ten year collaboration with Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe began in 1852, studying the formation of hydrogen chloride from hydrogen and chlorine.
In 1859, Bunsen discontinued his work with Roscoe and joined Gustav Kirchhoff to study emission spectroscopy of heated elements, spectrum analysis. For that purpose, Bunsen (or his laboratory assistant Peter Desaga) had in 1855 perfected a special gas burner, invented by the scientist Michael Faraday, that was later named the "Bunsen burner". When Bunsen retired at the age of 78, he shifted his work solely to geology and mineralogy, an interest which he had pursued throughout his career. He died in Heidelberg.
Literature
- Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, G. Lockeman, 1949.
- Gasometrische Methoden (reprint), with extended foreword by F. M. Schwandner (in German); Ostwalds Klassiker der Naturwissenschaften 269, 2006, ISBN 3-8171-3296-4. (includes an extensive list of Bunsen's students)
