Julius Tafel

Julius Tafel
Julius Tafel
Born	(1862-06-02)2 June 1862 Courrendlin, Switzerland
Died	2 September 1918(1918-09-02) (aged 56) Munich, German Empire
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Munich
Known for	Tafel reaction Tafel equation
Scientific career
Fields	Electrochemistry
Institutions	University of Munich
Doctoral advisor	Hermann Emil Fischer

Julius Tafel (2 June 1862 – 2 September 1918) was a Swiss chemist and electrochemist.

Work

He worked first with Hermann Emil Fischer on the field of organic chemistry, but changed to electrochemistry after his work with Wilhelm Ostwald. He is known for the discovery of an electrosynthetic rearrangement reaction of various alkylated ethyl acetoacetates to form hydrocarbons, now called the Tafel rearrangement, and the Tafel equation, which relates the rate of an electrochemical reaction to the overpotential. He is also credited for the discovery of the catalytic mechanism of hydrogen evolution (the Tafel mechanism). Tafel retired aged 48 due to ill health, but continued to write book reviews until his death.

Life

Tafel suffered from insomnia and eventually had a complete nervous breakdown. He committed suicide in Munich in 1918.

References

• Julius Tafel, Hans Hahl (1907). "Vollständige Reduktion des Benzylacetessigesters". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft. 40 (3): 3312–3318. doi:10.1002/cber.190704003102.
• Bruno Emmert; Stock, A. (1918). "Julius Tafel". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft. 51 (2): 1686–1687. doi:10.1002/cber.19180510254.
• K. Müller (1969). "Julius Tafel". J. Res. Inst. Catalysis, Hokkaido Univ. 17: 54–75.
• Julius Tafel (1905). "Julius Tafel". Z. Phys. Chem. 50: 668, 676, 689.
• G.T. Burstein (2005). "A Century of Tafel's Equation: 1905–2005 A Commemorative Issue of Corrosion Science". Corrosion Science. 47 (12): 2858–2870. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2005.07.002.

External links

• Media related to Julius Tafel at Wikimedia Commons
• "Julius Tafel". Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Chemistry. Archived from the original on 2007-12-05.