Early years

Zsigmondy was born in Vienna, Austrian Empire, to a Hungarian gentry family. His mother Irma Szakmáry, a poet born in Martonvásár, and his father, Adolf Zsigmondy Sr., a scientist from Pressburg (Pozsony, today's Bratislava) who invented several surgical instruments for use in dentistry. Zsigmondy family members were Lutherans. They originated from Johannes (Hungarian: János) Sigmondi (1686–1746, Bártfa, Kingdom of Hungary) and included teachers, priests and Hungarian freedom-fighters. Richard was raised by his mother after his father's early death in 1880, and received a comprehensive education. He enjoyed hobbies such as climbing and mountaineering with his siblings. His elder brothers, Otto (a dentist) and Emil (a physician), were well-known mountain climbers; his younger brother, Karl Zsigmondy, became a notable mathematician in Vienna. In high school Richard developed an interest in natural science, especially in chemistry and physics, and experimented in his home laboratory.

He began his academic career at the University of Vienna Medical Faculty, but soon moved to the Technical University of Vienna, and later to the University of Munich, to study chemistry under Wilhelm von Miller (1848–1899). In Munich he conducted research on indene and received his PhD from the University of Erlangen in 1889.^[2][3][4]

Career

In 1885 Zsigmondy published his very first article as a joint publication with his Viennese professor Rudolf Benedikt on a method of determining glycerin. His 1887 article Neue Lüster und Farben auf Glas (about colours on glass) marked the beginning of a research area on which he would work for another 30 years.^[3] Zsigmondy left organic chemistry to join the physics group of August Kundt at the University of Berlin.

In July 1892 Zsigmondy held a colloquium at Graz University of Technology assessed among others by Albert von Ettingshausen and Friedrich Emich in order to qualify as assistant professor.^[5] There he also completed his habilitation in 1893.^[1] Because of his knowledge about glass and its colouring, in 1897 the Schott Glass factory offered him a job which he accepted. He invented the Jenaer Milchglas and conducted some research on the red Ruby glass. Lecturing activities in Graz were documented until 1899.^[6]

Zsigmondy left Schott Glass in 1900, but remained in Jena as private lecturer to conduct his research. Together with the optical instrument manufacturer Zeiss, he developed the slit ultramicroscope. His scientific career continued in 1908 at the University of Göttingen, where he stayed for the rest of his professional career as professor of inorganic chemistry. In 1925, Zsigmondy received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on colloids and the methods he used, such as the ultramicroscope upon which based his investigation on the Purple of Cassius.

Before Zsigmondy finished his PhD thesis in organic chemistry, he published research on colouring glass with silver salts and dissolved silver particles, which he recovered by dissolving the glass in hydrofluoric acid.

Vintage cranberry glass bowl

During his stay in Graz, Zsigmondy accomplished his most notable research work, on the chemistry of colloids. The exact mechanism which yields the red colour of the Cranberry or Ruby glass was a result of his studies of colloids.^[7]

Aqueous colloidal gold.

In later years he worked on gold hydrosols and used them to characterize protein solutions. While in Jena he developed the slit ultramicroscope together with Henry Siedentopf. After moving to Göttingen, Zsigmondy improved his optical equipment for the observation of finest nanoparticles suspended in liquid solution. As a result, he introduced the immersion ultramicroscope in 1912.^[8]

Together with Wilhelm Bachmann, Zsigmondy developed a new membrane filter (1916).^[9] He later transferred his patents to a company established by him, other shareholders and Sartorius AG which was incorporated to Sartorius in the late 1970s.^[10][11]

Private life

Göttingen, grave Zsigmondy's

In 1903 Zsigmondy married Laura Luise Müller, with whom he had two daughters, Annemarie and Käthe.

Richard Zsigmondy died due to his arteriosclerosis only a few months after retiring from his university position in Göttingen in early March.^[12][4][13]

He was a cousin of the architect Frigyes Schulek, whose mother was Auguszta Zsigmondy. He is also related to the violinist Dénes Zsigmondy.