Friedrich Karl Franz Liebau (May 31, 1926 – 11 March 2011) was a German chemist, crystallographer, and mineralogist known for his research in
silicates
A silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is also used for an ...
.
Education and career
Liebau was born on 31 May 1926, in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. He grew up as the son of the upholsterer Otto Liebau and his wife Anna Liebau, née Hecklau, along with two sisters in Berlin. After graduating from high school, he was called up for military service and served in the war from 1944 to 1945. He experienced the end of the war with gunshot wounds in the hospital and thus escaped a longer period of imprisonment in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
.
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Liebau studied chemistry at the
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
and later at the
German Academy of Sciences at Berlin
The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, , in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent Research institute, research institution of East Germany (German Democratic Repub ...
. He worked the supervision of Erich Thilo and received his diploma in 1951 with the thesis "''Über das Na
2BeF
4 und seine Beziehung zum Ca
2SiO
4''", and followed by his doctorate in 1956 with the doctoral thesis "''Über die Kristallstrukturen des (NaAsO
3)
x, der Hochtemperaturmodifikation des Maddrellschen Salzes (NaPO
3)
x(l), des β-Wollastonits CaSiO
3 und einiger strukturell verwandter wasserhaltiger Calciumsilicate.''”
In 1960, Liebau fled
East Berlin
East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
to
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
. Here he worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Silicate Research in
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...
and habilitated in 1964 at the
University of Würzburg
The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...
with work on the crystal chemistry of silicates. In 1965, Friedrich Liebau became a professor for mineralogy and crystallography at the
Christian-Albrechts University
Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public University, public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ...
in
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
. There he continued to research the crystal structure of silicates and derived a classification scheme for it. His book "''Structural Chemistry of Silicates''", published on this subject in 1985, is now the generally accepted textbook on the chemical structure of silicates, which make up most of the rocks on earth. From 1973 to 1974 he was Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. In the 1980s, Liebau worked on the construction and synthesis of
clathrates, silicate structures with cavities in which organic or inorganic molecules are embedded, and
zeolites
Zeolites are a group of several Microporous material, microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorption, adsorbents and Catalysis, catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the ge ...
,
aluminum silicate structures with cavities in which cations are embedded. The latter are used industrially in large quantities, such as in an
ion exchanger for
water softening
Water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations in hard water. The resulting soft water requires less soap for the same cleaning effort, as soap is not wasted bonding with calcium ions. Soft water also extend ...
.
In 1991, he retired and continued to be active in research. Until his death in
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
, on 11 March 2011, aged 84, he worked on an extension of the
bond valence theory, with which certain material properties, such as
high-temperature superconductivity
High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...
can be described.
Personal life
In 1952, Liebau married Waltrude Martini (later Waltrude Liebau), with whom he had four children: Elisabeth Liebau (born 1953), Martin Liebau (born 1954), Barbara Liebau-Danker (born 1956) and Christine Riewerts (born 1961).
Honors and awards
Liebau received many awards for his research, including the following,
* 1990
Abraham Gottlob Werner Medal of the
German Mineralogical Society
* 1995 honorary doctorate from the geoscientific faculty of the
University of Würzburg
The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...
* 1998 honorary member of the
German Crystallographic Society
* 2002
Carl Hermann Medal of the
German Crystallographic Society
* 2005 honorary member of the
German Mineralogical Society
Liebauite, a mineral discovered in the
Eifel
The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...
in 1992, is named after him.
Bibliography
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebau, Friedrich
2011 deaths
1926 births
20th-century German chemists
German crystallographers
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Academic staff of the University of Kiel
German mineralogists
German chemists
German Academy of Sciences at Berlin people
Scientists from Berlin