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Fritz Pregl
(1869-1930)
Austrian chemist awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing
techniques in the microanalysis of organic compounds.
As a result of
an interest in biological substances that could only be obtained in
extremely small quantities, he had to decide whether to process tons
of raw materials or search for new analytical methods that would be
reliable on minute quantities. He chose the latter approach, and over
the years developed new microanalytical methods for elemental analysis
(C, H, N, halogens, etc.) that we now take for granted. He also developed
microanalytical methods for functional groups and for molecular weights.
His monograph "Quantitative Organic Microanalysis", first
published in 1917, went through at least 7 editions and was translated
from the original German into various languages, including English,
French and Russian.
Pregl received his M.D. from the University of Graz (1893), with which
he was associated for most of his professional life and where he became
director of the Medico-Chemical Institute in 1913. About 1904 he began
researches on bile acids and other substances. The difficulty of obtaining
these materials in quantities sufficient for the use of conventional
analytic techniques impelled him to devise analytic methods requiring
only minute amounts. By 1912 he was able to make reliable measurements
of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur with only 7-13 milligrams
of starting material. His breakthrough eventually enabled scientists
to begin work with tenths of milligrams of material. Pregl also developed
a sensitive microbalance and micromethods for measuring atomic groups
and devised a simple method for determining the functional capacities
of kidneys.
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