Ferdinand Münz

{{Short description|Austrian chemist (1888–1969)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Ferdinand Münz

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|birth_date = {{Birth date|1888|6|23|df=y}}

|birth_place = Kracow

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|nationality = Austrian

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1969|8|16|1888|6|23|df=y}}

|death_place = Glashütten, Germany

|field = Organic chemistry

|work_institution = IG Farben

|alma_mater = Technische Universität Wien

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|known_for = EDTA synthesis

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Ferdinand Münz (1888-1969) was an Austrian chemist who first synthesized EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) at IG Farben in 1935, patented both in Germany (anonymously) and in the USA {{cite patent|country=US|number=2130505|pubdate=1938-09-20|title=Polyamino carboxylic acids and process of making same|assign1=General Analine Works, Inc.|inventor1-last=Münz|inventor1-first=Ferdinand}} (with his name), with the aim of producing a citric acid substitute, in order to reduce the German government's dependence on imports of chemical products from abroad. Münz noted that an aminocarboxylic acid worked much better as a chelating agent than citric acid and therefore thought that a polyaminopolycarboxylic acid would have worked even better.{{cite journal |last=Paolieri |first=Matteo |date=December 2017 |title= Ferdinand Münz: EDTA and 40 years of inventions |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321552574 |journal=Bull. Hist. Chem. |publisher=ACS | volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=133–140}}

In 1945 he worked closely with the future Nobel laureate Kurt Alder (1902-1958). In 1949 they published a paper together on diene synthesis and additions.{{cite journal |last1=Münz |first1=Ferdinand | last2 = Alder | first2 = Kurt |date=1949 |title= Diensynthese und substituierende Addition beim Divinyl-methan-typus Addition von Maleinsäure-anhydrid an Pentadien-1,4 und an 1,4-Dihydro-benzol |journal=Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem. | volume=565 |pages=126–135|doi=10.1002/jlac.19495650113 }}