Karl-Hermann Geib | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 March 1908 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 21 July 1949 (aged 41) |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | Leipzig University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physical chemistry |
Karl-Hermann Geib (12 March 1908 – 21 July 1949) was a German physical chemist who, in 1943, developed the "dual temperature exchange sulphide process" (known as the Girdler sulfide process) which is regarded as the "most cost-effective process for producing heavy water". [1] [2] A parallel development of this process was achieved by Jerome S. Spevack at Columbia University and became the basis of post-World War II production of heavy water in the United States at the only remaining facilities located at Wabash River Ordnance Works, near Dana and Newport, Indiana, and the Savannah River Site. [3]
Geib was born in Berlin, Germany, on 12 March 1908 to Karl Geib and his wife Maria ( née Buddee). He married Hedwig Delbrück and they had four children, Katharina Oestreich (1937-2020), Barbara Pietsch (1938–2016), Ruprecht, born 1939 and Ulrike Heise, born 1940. [4]
In 1931, he graduated from Leipzig University and joined the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of Kaiser Wilhelm Society, which is known today as the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society. [4]
In 1931, while under the supervision of Paul Harteck, in Berlin, Geib delivered his dissertation on The Action of Atomic to Molecular Hydrogen [5] [6] and joined the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft in Berlin-Dahlem. The first scientific work he performed under the direction of Paul Harteck. Shortly after Harteck highway crossing in Cambridge Geib returned to alma mater – the Leipzig University and married Hedwig Delbrück.
He began exploring the reactions of the newly discovered deuterium. Independently and jointly with V. T. Forster, E. W. R. Steacie, A. Lendl, R. K. F. Bonhoeffer and L. D. C. Bok he published a number of papers, the results of which are reflected in his review. [7]
After the beginning of World War II (1940), Geib went to the chemical industrial complexes Leunawerke and proceeded under the Harteck's direction of the development process production of heavy water by a two-temperature isotopic exchange between hydrogen sulfide and water. So he received reservation on the mobilization, which for him was a significant factor. Karl and Hedwig Geib at the time had four children from infancy to five years.
In 1943, the Norwegian heavy water sabotage caused the production of heavy water to be returned to Germany under the direction of Paul Harteck, whose graduate student, Karl-Hermann Geib, while employed with the German chemical industry conglomerate IG Farben, suggested an exchange that used hydrogen sulfide in the process. [8]
The developed process was more effective than process with exchange in a hydrogen–water system, but its implementation was delayed. To create production capacity due to corrosion of hydrogen sulfide would take a lot of special alloys, which in time of war there is a shortage. Simultaneously developed by Jerome Spevak in the U.S. (1943) the same process did not develop at first for the same reason. [9] Immediately after the war under the auspices of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany and other agencies in the Leunawerke had assembled a group of experts, led by Paul Herold, a former Director on science. Geib joined the group. Pilot plants were restored and study of the process by isotopic exchange between hydrogen and water was continued. Besides the preliminary draft of plant with hydrogen sulfide annual capacity 5 tons of heavy water was designed. [10]
At 4:15 a.m. on 21 October 1946, Geib, and all of the other German scientists who had worked on heavy water production during World War II, were rounded up in Leunawerke by the NKVD in "Operation Osoaviakhim" [4] as part of the Russian Alsos and deported to the Soviet Union. They were housed in the town of Babushkin (presently Babushkinsky District of Moscow) and put to work at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry under the leadership of Max Volmer until mid-1948 when they were then sent to Rubizhne in Ukraine. [11]
Scientific work on heavy water and its production in both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were conducted in strict secrecy, so many facts remain unclear.
After applying to the Canadian Embassy in Moscow for asylum (exact date classified) giving the name of Professor E. W. R. Steacie as a reference, he was told to come back the next day. That was the last time he was seen and his wife in Germany received his effects in the mail. [12]
Heavy water is a form of water whose hydrogen atoms are all deuterium rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope that makes up most of the hydrogen in normal water. The presence of the heavier isotope gives the water different nuclear properties, and the increase in mass gives it slightly different physical and chemical properties when compared to normal water.
Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe was a German nuclear physicist know for the development of coincidence methods to study particle physics.
Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen was a German nuclear physicist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, known as the Uranium Club, where he contributed to the separation of uranium isotopes. After the war, Jensen was a professor at the University of Heidelberg. He was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Institute for Advanced Study, University of California, Berkeley, Indiana University, and the California Institute of Technology.
The Girdler sulfide (GS) process, also known as the Geib–Spevack (GS) process, is an industrial production method for filtering out of natural water the heavy water (deuterium oxide = D2O) which is used in particle research, in deuterium NMR spectroscopy, deuterated solvents for proton NMR spectroscopy, in heavy water nuclear reactors (as a coolant and moderator) and in deuterated drugs.
Nazi Germany undertook several research programs relating to nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, before and during World War II. These were variously called Uranverein or Uranprojekt. The first effort started in April 1939, just months after the discovery of nuclear fission in Berlin in December 1938, but ended only a few months later, shortly ahead of the September 1939 German invasion of Poland, for which many notable German physicists were drafted into the Wehrmacht. A second effort under the administrative purview of the Wehrmacht's Heereswaffenamt began on September 1, 1939, the day of the invasion of Poland. The program eventually expanded into three main efforts: Uranmaschine development, uranium and heavy water production, and uranium isotope separation. Eventually, the German military determined that nuclear fission would not contribute significantly to the war, and in January 1942 the Heereswaffenamt turned the program over to the Reich Research Council while continuing to fund the activity.
Karl Günter Zimmer, PhD, was a German nuclear chemist who is best known for his work in understanding the ionizing radiation on Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
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Paul Karl Maria Harteck was an Austrian physical chemist. In 1945 under Operation Epsilon in "the big sweep" throughout Germany, Harteck was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces for suspicion of aiding the Nazis in their nuclear weapons program and he was incarcerated at Farm Hall, an English house fitted with covert electronic listening devices, for six months.
Heinz Gerischer was a German chemist who specialized in electrochemistry. He was the thesis advisor of future Nobel laureate Gerhard Ertl.
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Wilhelm Hanle was a German experimental physicist. He is known for the Hanle effect. During World War II, he made contributions to the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club. From 1941 until emeritus status in 1969, he was an ordinarius professor of experimental physics and held the chair of physics at the University of Giessen.
Klaus Paul Alfred Clusius was a German physical chemist from Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; he worked on isotope separation techniques and heavy water production. After the war, he was a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Zurich. He died in Zurich.
Wilhelm Groth was a German physical chemist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; his main activity was the development of centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. After the war, he was a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Hamburg. In 1950, he became director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Bonn. He was a principal in the 1956 shipment of three centrifuges for uranium enrichment to Brazil.
Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Knauer was a German physical chemist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club.
Kurt Starke was a German radiochemist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club. He independently discovered the transuranic element neptunium. From 1947 to 1959, he taught and did research in Canada and the United States. From 1959 until he achieved emeritus status, he was at the German University of Marburg, where he established and became director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry. He was also the first dean of the Department of Physical Chemistry of the University of Marburg, which opened in 1971.
Heavy Water Board (HWB) is a constituent unit under the Department of Atomic Energy in the Government of India. The organisation is primarily responsible for production of heavy water (D2O) which is used as a moderator and coolant in nuclear power as well as research reactors. Other than heavy water, the HWB is also engaged with production of nuclear grade solvents and extraction of rare materials. India is one of the largest manufacturers of heavy water in the world. Similarly, India has one of the world's largest fleets of pressurized heavy water reactors producing most of India's nuclear power supply.
Deuterium-depleted water (DDW) is water which has a lower concentration of deuterium than occurs naturally at sea level on Earth.
Beryllium sulfide (BeS) is an ionic compound from the sulfide group with the formula BeS. It is a white solid with a sphalerite structure that is decomposed by water and acids.
Jerome S. "J.S." Spevack was an American scientist, inventor, and engineer who developed the "dual temperature exchange sulphide process" in 1943 while working on the Manhattan Project. This is regarded as the most cost-effective process for producing heavy water. A parallel development of this process was also achieved in 1943 by German physical chemist Karl-Hermann Geib.
Fritz Johann Hansgirg (1891–1949) was an Austrian electrochemist and metallurgist who in 1928 invented a carbothermic magnesium reduction process. In 1934, he left Austria for the Empire of Japan where he worked with industrialist Shitagau Noguchi to set up a magnesium plant, and then helped build a pilot plant to produce heavy water using a combined electrolysis catalytic exchange process he had invented. He moved to the United States in 1940, where he worked with industrialist Henry J. Kaiser to design a magnesium plant in California. In 1941, Hansgirg was arrested by the FBI on a presidential warrant and interned for "the duration of the war". After the war, the Soviet Union captured Hansgirg's plants in northern Korea, using the plants' processes and equipment for their atomic bomb project.
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