chemistry

Julius Tafel

Julius Tafel is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Julius Tafel rather than just read about it. In short: Julius Tafel (2 June 1862 – 2 September 1918) was a German chemist and electrochemist. Early life and education Julius Tafel was born in the village of Choindez in Courrendlin, Switzerland on 2 June 1862.

Key takeaways

Julius Tafel belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Julius Tafel to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Julius Tafel from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Julius Tafel (2 June 1862 – 2 September 1918) was a German chemist and electrochemist.

Early life and education Julius Tafel was born in the village of Choindez in Courrendlin, Switzerland on 2 June 1862. Tafel's father, Julius Tafel Sr. (1827-1893) studied chemistry at the University of Tübingen and became a director of Von Roll’s iron and steel works located in Choindez in 1856, and then took a top management position in steel works located in Gerlafingen in 1863. Tafel attended the Realgymnasium in Stuttgart and Nuremberg, then studied chemistry from 1880 at the University of Zurich, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the University of Erlangen. In 1884, he obtained his Ph.D. under Emil Fischer, who had joined the University of Erlangen in 1882. Tafel followed Fischer to the University of Würzburg in 1885 as his private assistant and completed his habilitation in 1888.

Work He worked first with Emil Fischer on the field of organic chemistry, but changed to electrochemistry after his work with Wilhelm Ostwald. He is known for the discovery of an electrosynthetic rearrangement reaction of various alkylated ethyl acetoacetates to form hydrocarbons, now called the Tafel rearrangement, and the Tafel equation, which relates the rate of an electrochemical reaction to the overpotential. He is also credited for the discovery of the catalytic mechanism of hydrogen evolution (the Tafel mechanism). Tafel retired aged 48 due to ill health but continued to write book reviews until his death.

Death Tafel suffered from insomnia and eventually had a complete nervous breakdown. He committed suicide in Munich in 1918.

References

Julius Tafel, Hans Hahl (1907). "Vollständige Reduktion des Benzylacetessigesters". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft. 40 (3): 3312–3318. doi:10.1002/cber.190704003102. Bruno Emmert; Stock, A. (1918). "Julius Tafel". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft. 51 (2): 1686–1687. doi:10.1002/cber.19180510254. K. Müller (1969). "Julius Tafel". J. Res. Inst. Catalysis, Hokkaido Univ. 17: 54–75. Julius Tafel (1905). "Julius Tafel". Z. Phys. Chem. 50: 668, 676, 689. G.T. Burstein (2005). "A Century of Tafel's Equation: 1905–2005 A Commemorative Issue of Corrosion Science". Corrosion Science. 47 (12): 2858–2870. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2005.07.002.

External links Media related to Julius Tafel at Wikimedia Commons "Julius Tafel". Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Chemistry. Archived from the original on 2007-12-05.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Julius Tafel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Julius Tafel claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Julius Tafel before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Julius Tafel ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Julius Tafel

In research: Julius Tafel appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Julius Tafel in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Julius Tafel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1862 births, 1918 deaths, 1918 suicides, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Julius Tafel outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Julius Tafel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Julius Tafel means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Julius Tafel out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Julius Tafel in simple terms?

Julius Tafel (2 June 1862 – 2 September 1918) was a German chemist and electrochemist. Early life and education Julius Tafel was born in the village of Choindez in Courrendlin, Switzerland on 2 June 1862.

Why does Julius Tafel matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Julius Tafel?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Julius Tafel.