March 30, 1811 - Birth of Robert Bunsen, co-discoverer of caesium and rubidium

D. in chemistry, he taught at the University of Göttingen (Germany) where he studied metal salts, which allowed him to make his first discovery, hydrated iron oxide, which is still used as an antidote against arsenic poisoning.

In 1836, he succeeded Friedrich Wöhler as professor of chemistry at the Kassel Polytechnic, but left the post two years later to go to work at the University of Marburg, where he made important advances in the field of organic chemistry, studying in depth the cacodyl compounds, which are flammable organometallic compounds with an unpleasant, garlic-like and poisonous smell, which were later presented in his book ‘Studies of the cacodyl series’. One of his experiments ended in a severe explosion that caused him to lose an eye.

In 1841, he perfected William Robert Grove's Grove battery, replacing the platinum electrode with a carbon electrode. He concentrates on improving batteries, which enables him to prepare various metals by electrolysis: aluminium, barium, calcium, chromium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, and sodium, and invents and develops an ice calorimeter with which he can determine the specific heat of these metals and thus their atomic mass.

He also founded an important and renowned school of chemists and physicists that included such outstanding students as Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Mendeléyev.

He was involved in the study of chemistry and participated in the development of what is now known as the Bunsen burner, an improvement on the burner developed by Michael Faraday. After discovering with his burner that certain substances exposed to heat gave off different shades, he decided to devote himself to the study of spectroscopy (interaction between matter and radiated energy), developing, together with Gustav Kirchhoff, the introduction of the primsa to display the spectrum and developing the first spectroscope in 1860. In 1861, together with Kirchhoff, he put forward the theory of spectral analysis, thanks to which they discovered caesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). After numerous attempts, he was unable to isolate caesium, which was obtained by electrolysis of molten salts by Carl Setterberg.

His work in spectroscopy facilitated the subsequent discovery of other elements such as thallium, gallium, indium, scandium, and helium.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Robert Bunsen