Chemical Education Today
Letters A Second Note on the Term “Chalcogen” In a recent note Jensen (1) traced the etymology of the term “chalcogen” or “ore former” and showed that many of the derivations of this word given in modern textbooks are incorrect. However, he did not indicate when this term was first introduced into the chemical literature or who first proposed its use. The purpose of this follow-up note is to provide the missing information. Around 1930, Wilhelm Blitz of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Hannover, Germany, and his staff were engaged in studies concerning the relationship between physical properties (e.g. volume) of chemical elements and their position in the periodic table. In their daily discussions it became useful to refer to certain groups of elements by characteristic names. However, the group of the elements O, S, Se, and Te lacked such a name. In about 1932, one of W. Biltz’s co-workers proposed the term “chalcogens” (“ore formers” from chalcos old Greek for “ore”) for these elements and “chalcogenides” for their compounds. These names quickly became popular in the work group of Hannover because they were analogous to the well-known terms “halogens” (“salt formers”) and “halogenides” for the neighboring elements in the periodic table, the majority of halogenides being salts and chalcogenides being ores. The new terms were soon used in publications by other members of the Biltz group (2, 3) and also by outsiders (4, 5). Heinrich Remy, the author of a comprehensive text book on inorganic chemistry, also supported the new term. He became the German member of the Committee of the International Union of Chemistry (later IUPAC) for the Reform of the Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, which met in Berlin and in Rome in 1938. Heinrich Remy’s suggestion led to the recommendation “the elements oxygen, sulfur, selenium and tellurium may be called chalcogens and their compounds chalcogenides” (6 ). Within just a few years, the term was used worldwide, particularly in textbooks. None of the above-cited references mentions the name of the original proposer of the new terms. Only in a footnote concerning their justification and usefulness does W. Biltz (7)
name his collaborator Werner Fischer (8), the author of this note, as the proposer. Werner Fischer now lives in Freiburg/ Breisgau, Germany, and is 99 years old. Literature Cited 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8.
Jensen, W. B. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1063. Klemm, W.; v. Vogel, H. U. Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 1934, 219, 45. Haraldsen, H.; Klemm, W. Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 1934, 220, 183. Klemm, W.; Sodomann, H.; Langmesser, P. Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 1939, 241, 281. Rheinboldt, H.; Berti, F. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1941, 74B, 1046. Jorissen, W. P.; Bassett, H.; Damiens, A.; Fichter, F.; Remy, H. (members of the Committee for the Reform of Inorganic Chemical Nomenclature) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1941, 63, 889; for “chalcogens”, see p 892. Biltz, W. Raumchemie der festen Stoffe; Leopold Voss: Leipzig, 1934; p 174, footnote 1. Werner Fischer is the first author who published experiments showing the effective separation of rare earths by liquid–liquid extraction: Fischer, W.; Dietz, W.; Jübermann, O. Naturwissenschaften 1937, 25, 348. Fischer, W.; Dietz, W.; Jübermann, O. Process for the Separation of Mixed Rare Earths Comprising Sc, Y, Zr, Hf, Th by Partitioning These Elements between Immiscible Fluids; German Patent 752,865 of Apr 10, 1937, issued Jul 6, 1944. Because of the turmoil during and after World War II the patent did not appear in print. However, essential parts of it are described in the FIAT Review of German Sciences 1939–1946; Dietrich: Wiesbaden, 1949, Vol. 23, pp 29–34. After the war, the procedure was further developed by Fischer and his co-workers and by many others worldwide. These new processes make it possible to commercially produce compounds of single rare earth elements free of the other named elements for many applications, as for example the production of Hf-free Zr used in atomic reactors. Werner Fischer Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Hannover, Germany Neubergweg 20 D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 78 No. 10 October 2001 • Journal of Chemical Education
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