F. R. Eirich

Abstract

On arrival at Poly in 1947 from Cambridge, England where Dr. Eirich researched and lectured in the areas of Colloid and Polymer Science, Physical Chemistry, and Rheology, his first contributions were to the physical chemical characterization of polymers in solution, building on the work of Doty and Zimm including the techniques of osmometry, isothermal diffusion, electrophoresis, ultracentrifugation, flow birefringence, and viscosimetry. About ten papers, in cooperation of M. Schick, T. McGoury, J. Riseman, S. Newman, B. Rosen, P. Kamath, R. Aelion and A. Loebl emerged from this research on the relation between particle size, charge and shape and the viscosity and sedimentation of polymer molecules in solution, on the molecular weights of synthetic polypeptides, and on the relation between the coefficients in Einstein’s and Huggin’s viscosity equations and the concentration correction factors in sedimentation and diffusion.