Hermann Lux (3 September 1904, in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the German States of Germany, state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital o ...

– 8 July 1999), was a prominent inorganic

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe ...

from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany. Lux studied chemistry in the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 ...

where he graduated with honors in 1928 and then completed his education in the University of Bonn in 1929. He returned to Karlsruhe and worked there until his move to

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

in 1937, where he worked as an assistant until 1940, then as a lecturer until 1946 and then became the head of the analytical chemistry department. He became an associate professor in 1944 and a full professor in 1955. He moved to the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

in 1968 where he was a full professor of

inorganic In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as ''inorganic chemis ...

and analytical chemistry until his retirement in 1973. He died on 8 July 1999, almost 95 years old.

Achievements

* Discovered a method of quantitative determination of 1 ppm quantities of mercury (1931, together with Alfred Stock) * Extensively studied chemical reactions in molten salts, leading up to the Lux-Flood acid-base theory (1937)Lux, H., "Säuren" und "Basen" im Schmelzfluss: die Bestimmung. der Sauerstoffionen-Konzentration. Ztschr. Elektrochem. 1939, 45(4),. 303–309 * Invented the "hanging melt" method which made it possible to study extremely aggressive molten salt systems, such as alkali oxides. * Investigated salts of metals in unusual oxidation states, such as bivalent

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and h ...

or pentavalent

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy u ...

. * Published a number of books including "Anorganisch-chemische Experimentierkunst" (''Inorganic-chemical experimental art'') and "Praktikum der quantitativen anorganischen Analyse" (''Practical course of the quantitative inorganic analysis'') which were translated into many languages and used by many analytic chemists.

References

External links

Books by Hermann Lux on amazon.de
1904 births 1999 deaths 20th-century German chemists Academic staff of the Technical University of Munich Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Science teachers {{Germany-chemist-stub