- Kazimierz Fajans
Infobox_Scientist
name = Kazimierz Fajans
image_width =
caption = Kazimierz Fajans
birth_date = birth date|1887|5|27
birth_place = Warsaw,Poland
residence =
nationality =
death_date = death date and age|1975|5|18|1887|5|27
death_place =Ann Arbor, Michigan ,United States
field =
work_institution =
alma_mater =
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doctoral_students =
known_for = Discovery ofprotactinium
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =Kazimierz Fajans (b.
May 27 ,1887 inWarsaw, Poland ; d.May 18 ,1975 inAnn Arbor, Michigan , USA) was an American physical chemist of Polish origin and a pioneer in the science ofradioactivity .Education and career
After he had completed a secondary school in
Warsaw (1904), he started studying chemistry in Germany: at first at the University inLeipzig , and then inHeidelberg andZurich . In 1909 he was awarded a PhD degree for his research into the stereoselective synthesis of chiral compounds. In 1910 he undertook a job at the laboratory ofErnest Rutherford inManchester , where the nucleus was discovered. Next Fajans returned to Germany where he took the position of an assistant and later became the assistant professor at the Technical University ofKarlsruhe . He researched into radioactivity. In 1917 he took over the Faculty of Physical Chemistry atMunich University , and in 1932 became the Head of the Institute of Physical Chemistry established by theRockefeller Foundation . In 1935 he left Germany due to the escalation ofNazi persecution. He stayed for a while in Cambridge and next returned toAnn Arbor, Michigan in the United States, where he joined the Faculty of theUniversity of Michigan where he continued to work until the end of his life. He retired at age of seventy but never stopped working.cientific work
When Fajans worked at the laboratory of
Ernest Rutherford (withHenry G. Moseley ) he was researching properties of the radioactive rows. He identified the periods of half-disappearance of theuranium -actinium row andthorium nuclides. He discovered the phenomenon of the electrochemical branching of the radioactive rows. Afterwards Fajans was working on the electrochemical properties of elements as a result of the radioactive changes, and he formulated the law of the radioactive moves which was later named the Soddy-Fajans Method (Frederick Soddy received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1921 for his isotopic research). In 1913, together withOtto Göhring , he discovered the radionuclide of a new element, which was later calledprotactinium . Fajans andOtto Hahn were the discoverers of the formula that defined the conditions of the precipitation and absorption of radioactive substances. It is very significant in the context of radiochemical methods of separating and cleaning radioactive substances found in the smallest number. In 1919, Fajans started researching the structure of particle and crystal by the thermochemical and refractometrical methods. The co-relation of Born, Fajans and Haber is one of the basic thermochemical rule. On the basis of his research data Fajans formulated the essential conclusions concerning chemical bonding strength and deformation of ions and particles, such as heat of ion hydration, refraction measurements and the heat of sublimation.In the States he researched nuclear reactions using a
cyclotron and discovered the radioactive lead isotope with Voigt, and a newrhenium isotope with Sullivan. He developed the quanticule theory which explained the rule of chemical bondings through electrostatic impacts between quanticules and nuclear cores. He was a member of the Polish Institute Of Arts and Sciences in America and of many societies and academies.Bibliography
*1913 - "Radioactive Transformations and the Periodic System of the Elements"
*? - "Application of the resonance theory to the structure of the water molecule"
*1941 - "Artificial radioactive isotopes of Thallium, Lead and Bismuth"
*1948 - "Electronic structure of molecules"References
*Citation
id =PMID :5328478
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5328478
publication-date=1966 May
year=1966
title=Kasimir Fajans.
volume=7
issue=5
periodical=J. Nucl. Med.
pages=402-4ee also
*
Radioactivity
*Fajans rules
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