Max Bodenstein
Encyclopedia
Max Ernst August Bodenstein (born July 15, 1871 in Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

 - died September 3, 1942 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

) was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 physical chemist
Physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems in terms of physical laws and concepts...

 known for his work in chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the study of rates of chemical processes. Chemical kinetics includes investigations of how different experimental conditions can influence the speed of a chemical reaction and yield information about the reaction's mechanism and transition...

. He was first to postulate a chain reaction
Chain reaction
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events....

 mechanism and that explosion
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...

s are branched chain reactions, later applied to the atomic bomb.

Career

He received his PhD with the theme: "Zersetzung des Jodwasserstoffes in der Hitze" (Degradation of hydrogen iodide in hot temperature) with Victor Meyer at the University of Heidelberg.

He also studied decomposition of hydrohalic acids and their formation. Furthermore Bodenstein studied catalysis
Catalysis
Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....

 in flowing systems and discovered diffusion controlled catalytic reactions and photochemical reactions with Karl Liebermann at the Technical University of Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...

 and with Walter Nernst at the University of Göttingen. After having returned to the University of Heidelberg in the year 1899 he habilitated with the theme: "Gasreaktionen in der chemischen Kinetik" (Reaction of Gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...

 in the chemical kinetics).

In 1904 he was firstly appointed as honorary professor at the physicochemical institute from Wilhelm Ostwald
Wilhelm Ostwald
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was a Baltic German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities...

 at the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 before furthermore in 1906 he was called to become associate professor at the University of Berlin and senior manager of the physicochemical institute of Walter Nernst. In 1908 he decided to change to the University of Hanover where he was appointed professor in ordinary and director of the electrochemical institute. Finally in 1923 he went back to Berlin where he accepted to be director of the physicochemical institute after the retirement of Walter Nernst.

Max Bodenstein was also co-operator with the "German Atomgewichts-Kommission" (German Commission of Atomic Weight
Atomic weight
Atomic weight is a dimensionless physical quantity, the ratio of the average mass of atoms of an element to 1/12 of the mass of an atom of carbon-12...

s), co-editor of the journal "Physikalische Chemie" (Physical chemistry) and since 1924 ordinary member in the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

He died in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. His tomb is at the cemetery Berlin-Nikolassee. A tablet commemorating Bodenstein and Walther Nernst
Walther Nernst
Walther Hermann Nernst FRS was a German physical chemist and physicist who is known for his theories behind the calculation of chemical affinity as embodied in the third law of thermodynamics, for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in chemistry...

 was placed in 1983.

Awards

In 1936 he was awarded the "August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann was a German chemist.-Biography:Hofmann was born at Gießen, Grand Duchy of Hesse. Not intending originally to devote himself to physical science, he first took up the study of law and philology at Göttingen. But he then turned to chemistry, and studied under Justus von...

 votive medal
" from the "German Chemical Society". Furthermore he became honorary doctor of science of the University of Princeton and Dr.-Ing. E.h. (honorary doctor of engineering).

Special case and literature

  • Chemische Kinetik. Ergebnisse der exakten Naturwiss., Berlin 1922; I., page 197-209,
  • Photochemie. Ergebnisse der exakten Naturwiss., Berlin 1922; I, page 210-227,
  • Completed references of his works in the library of Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften:
  • Completed references of his works in the Wiley Interscience:
  • Works of Max Bodenstein in the German National Library
    German National Library
    The German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany...



The Bodenstein number, a special type of Peclet number
Péclet number
The Péclet number is a dimensionless number relevant in the study of transport phenomena in fluid flows. It is named after the French physicist Jean Claude Eugène Péclet. It is defined to be the ratio of the rate of advection of a physical quantity by the flow to the rate of diffusion of the same...

 that is often used to describe axial mixing in so-called axial-dispersion models, is named after him.

External links

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