Anton Schrötter von Kristelli (26 November 1802 - 15 April 1875) was an Austrian chemist and mineralogist born in Olomouc, Moravia. His son Leopold Schrötter Ritter von Kristelli (1837–1908) was a noted laryngologist.
Antons father was an apothecary. He initially studied medicine in Vienna at the request of his father, but switched to the natural sciences under the influence of Friedrich Mohs. In 1827 he became an assistant in the fields of physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna. In 1830 he was appointed professor of physics and chemistry at the Joanneum Technical Institute in Graz, and from 1843 served as a professor of technical chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of the University of Vienna. In 1845 he attained the chair of general chemistry in Vienna. In 1868 he was appointed Master of the Mint. Declining health made him retire in 1874.[1]
As a chemist he conducted research involving reactions of metals with ammonia at higher temperatures, and performed investigations of substances such as amber, idrialite, ozokerite, asphalt and dopplerite. In 1845 he discovered a process for preparing red phosphorus, a development which led to the invention of the safety match.[1]
He was a scientific consultant to the Novara Expedition (1857–59), as well as to the Austrian-Hungarian North Pole Expedition. His name is associated with the Schrötterhorn of the Ortlergruppe in the Alps and Cape Schrötter on Franz Josef Land. He was a founding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and in 1850 became its general secretary.