Walter Hieber

Infobox_Scientist
name = Walter Hieber


image_width =
caption = Walter Hieber
birth_date = birth date|1895|12|18
birth_place =
residence =
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death_date = death date and age|1976|11|29|1895|12|18
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work_institution = Technical University in Munich,
University of Heidelberg,
University of Greifswald,
University of Marburg
alma_mater = University of Tübingen,
University of Würzburg,
University of Heidelberg
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students = Ernst Otto Fischer
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Walter Hieber was an inorganic chemist, known as the father of metal carbonyl chemistry. [cite journal
author = Fischer, E. O.
title = Walter Hieber 1895-1976
journal = Chemische Berichte
year = 1979
volume = 112
pages = XXI–XXXIX
doi =10.1002/cber.19791120241] [cite journal
author =
title = Walter Hieber
journal = Chemische Berichte
year = 1977
volume = 110
pages = XXI–XXXIX
doi =10.1002/cber.19771100245 ] He was born 18 December, 1895 and died 29 November, 1976. Hieber's father was Johannes Hieber, an influential evangelical minister and politician.

Hieber was educated at Tübingen, ["Über Komplexverbindungen des dreiwertigen Eisens mit unterphosphoriger Säure", Dissertation, Tübingen 1919.] Würzburg, ["Zur Kenntnis der chemischen Reaktionen des Eisencarbonyls", Habil.-Schrift, Würzburg 1929.] and Heidelberg. In 1935 he was appointed Director of the Inorganic Chemical Institute at the Technical University in Münich.

Among his numerous research findings, Hieber prepared the first metal carbonyl hydrides such as H₂Fe(CO)₄ and HMn(CO)₅. He discovered that metal carbonyls undergo nucleophilic attack by hydroxide, the “Hieber base reaction.” [Hieber, W.; Leutert, F. “Uber Metallcarbonyle. XlI. Die Basenreaktion des Eisenpentacarbonyls und die Bildung des Eisencarbonylwasserstoffs” Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie. 1932, volume 204, pages 145-164.] He and his students discovered several metal carbonyl compounds such as Re₂(CO)₁₀ and Os₃(CO)₁₂ [Hieber, W. and Stallmann, H., "Über Osmiumcarbonyle", Zeitschrifft fur Elektrochemie, 1943, volume 49, page 288-292.] He pioneered the development of metal carbonyl sulfides. [Hieber, W. and Scharfenberg, C., "Einwirkung organischer Schwefelverbindungen auf die Carbonyls des Eisens", Chemische Berichte, 1940, volume 73, pages 1012-1021.]

Hieber was highly decorated for his work, including in 1951 the Alfred Stock Prize. One of his most famous students was Nobel prize winner Ernst Otto Fischer. His first foreign student was John Anderson, FRS, in 1931.

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