Richard Zsigmondy, Chemistry (1865 to 1929)

In 1925 Richard Zsigmondy (1865 to 1929) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his proof of the heterogeneous nature of colloidal solutions and the methods of the chemistry of colloids applied by him. From 1908 until his death in 1929 Zsigmondy was Director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Göttingen. Colloids are gel-like substances such as starch, gelatine and albumen. Thanks to the slit-ultramicroscope developed jointly with the physicist H. F. W. Siedentopf Zsigmondy was able to provide the experimental proof for the atomic composition of matter. As part of this research membrane filters were developed at the Göttingen Institute with which these colloids could be separated.