Schönbein, Christian Friedrich

Christian Friedrich Schönbein, (born Oct. 18, 1799, Metzingen, Swabia—died Aug. 29, 1868, Sauersberg, near Baden-Baden), German chemist who discovered and named ozone (1840) and was the first to describe guncotton (nitrocellulose). His teaching posts included one at Epsom, Eng., before he joined the faculty at the University of Basel, Switz. (1828), where he was appointed professor of chemistry and physics in 1835.

His discovery of guncotton began with an accident in his wife’s kitchen. When he used her cotton apron to wipe up some spilled nitric and sulfuric acid, it disintegrated, leading to his work on nitrocellulose. He also did research on the passivity of iron, the properties of hydrogen peroxide, and catalysis. In his lifetime he produced more than 360 scientific papers.