Charles Adolphe Wurtz

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Charles Adolphe Wurtz (ca.1870)

Charles Adolphe Wurtz , also Karl Adolph Wurtz (born November 26, 1817 in Strasbourg , † May 12, 1884 in Paris ), was a French doctor and chemist . His main research area was the chemistry of hydrocarbons and organic nitrogen compounds. So he synthesized the ethylamine and discovered the glycol and the phosphorus oxychloride . Together with Rudolph Fittig , the Wurtz-Fittig synthesis was named, in which hydrocarbons are formed from haloalkanes through the action of alkali metals.

Life

His father Jean Jacques Wurtz was a Protestant pastor in Strasbourg and Wolfisheim , where Charles Adolphe Wurtz spent his early youth. His mother was Sophie Kreiss. After attending the Protestant grammar school in Strasbourg in 1834, he began to study medicine in agreement with his father. He was particularly interested in clinical chemistry, so that in 1839 he was appointed Chef des travaux chimiques at the Strasbourg Medical Faculty. He finished his studies with a dissertation Histoire chimique de la bile à l'état sain et à l'état pathologique (1839). Then followed a year of study under Justus von Liebig in Giessen , after which he went back to Paris, where he worked in the laboratory of Jean-Baptiste Dumas . In 1845 he became Dumas' assistant ( taxidermist ) at the École de Médicine de Paris , and four years later he began lecturing there on organic chemistry.

Another academic publication for the Faculté de Médecine in Paris appeared in 1847 with the title De la production de la chaleur dans les êtres organisés . Because of the modest equipment of his laboratory at the École de Médicine de Paris, he opened his own private laboratory in 1850 on Rue Garenciere. He was in contact with the Alsatian chemists Auguste Scheurer-Kestner , Charles Frédéric Gerhardt and Joseph-Achille Le Bel .

Wurtz married Constance Opperman (1830-1906) both had a daughter Sophie Lucie Wurtz (1855-1922) and a son Henri Wurtz (1862-1944).

In 1850 he received a professorship in chemistry at the newly opened Institut Agronomique in Versailles , which was closed again in 1852. The following year he was given the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the Medical Faculty , which had become vacant due to the resignation of JBA Dumas. In 1866 he took over the duties of dean at the Faculty of Medicine. In 1875 he resigned from the office of dean, but retained the title of honorary dean. Wurtz was an honorary member of almost all scientific societies in Europe. He was one of the founders of the Société Chimique de France (1858), where he was first secretary and three times as president.

In 1875 he was the first professor of organic chemistry at the Sorbonne .

Since 1859 Wurtz was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1867 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences . In December 1873 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg . In 1883 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the National Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Wurtz died in Paris in 1884, presumably of complications from diabetes mellitus , and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Scientific work

His main areas of study were the hydrocarbons and organic nitrogen compounds. He synthesized ethylamine for the first time . This synthesis was promoted by the considerations on the type theory of 1839 by Charles Frédéric Gerhardt and Auguste Laurent (1807-1853), according to which the elements of a chemical body can be replaced by other elements - here by the introduction of ammonia (NH 3 ) in 1849 in chemical compounds to be synthesized accordingly (see also history of the substitution reaction ).

Wurtz created a series of chemical bodies, from ammonia (NH 3 ) to ethylamine (C 2 H 5 NH 2 ) to diethylamine ((C 2 H 5 ) 2 NH) and ultimately to triethylamine ((C 2 H 5 ) 3 N ).

He discovered ethylene glycol and phosphorus oxychloride . The Wurtz-Fittig synthesis is named after him and Rudolph Fittig , in which hydrocarbons are formed from haloalkanes through the action of alkali metals . This represents a further development of the actual Wurtz synthesis .

Wurtz changed the experimental setup originally chosen by Edward Frankland - with ethyl iodide and zinc - and instead implemented a mixture consisting of two alkyl halides with metallic sodium. In general, the following applies to the Wurtz synthesis:

RX + 2 Na → R-Na + NaX
R-Na + RX → RR + NaX

"R" stands for a saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon , "X" for a halogen and "Na" for sodium .

As a result, he was able to extract a number of new hydrocarbons.

From 1852 Wurtz was co-editor of the journal of the Annales de chimie et de physique and from October 1858 editor of the Répertoire de chimie pure of the Société chimique de Paris, founded that year .

"La chimie est une science française"

Wurtz statue in Strasbourg. 1920s

In the second half of the 19th century, chemistry was absorbed by patriotism in the area of ​​tension between patriotism and universalism. " La chimie est une science française - (Chemistry is a French science) " wrote Wurtz in 1868/69. He meant that chemistry as a science was first established by the French Lavoisier . Immediately a heated discussion broke out in letters and specialist journals, the glow of which could not be extinguished until the First World War. This discussion reached its climax during the Franco-Prussian War .

Honors

Street sign in Wolfisheim (France)

Works (selection)

  • Histoire chimique de la bile à l'état sain et à l'état pathologique. Thèse Strasbourg 1839 (digitized version)
  • De la production de la chaleur dans les êtres organisés (1847)
  • Mémoire sur les ammoniaques composés , Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1851 (digitized version ) (digitized version )
  • Leçons de philosophie chimique , Hachette, Paris 1864 (digitized version)
  • Leçons de Chimie professées (1864)
  • Traité élémentaire de chimie médicale (1864–65; 2nd ed. 1868–75), 2 volumes, Paris
  • Leçons élémentaires de chimie moderne , Paris 1866; 4th edition 1879 (digitized version) ; 7th edition 1894 (digitized version)
  • Histoire des doctrines chimiques depuis Lavoisier jusqu'à nos jours. Hachette, Paris 1868 (digitized version)
  • Histoire de chimie pure et appliqué , Hachette, Paris 1869; 2nd edition 1873 (digitized version)
    • Henry Watts (translator). A history of chemical theory from the age of Lavoisier to the present time . Macmillan, London 1869 (digitized version)
    • Alphons Oppenheim (1833–1877, ed.). History of chemical theories from Lavoisier to our time . Published by Robert Oppenheim, Berlin 1870 (digitized version) . Publisher pasted over with: Hannover Verlag der Gebrüder Jänecke 1870 (digitized version)
  • Les hautes études pratiques dans les universités allemandes . Imprimerie Impériale, Paris 1870 (digitized version)
  • Dictionnaire de chimie pure et appliquée comprenant: la chimie organique et inorganique, la chimie appliquée à l'industrie, à l'agriculture et aux arts, la chimie analytique, la chimie physique et la minéralogie . Hachette, Volume I (AB), Paris (1868) 1874 (digitized version)  ; Volume II, Part 2 (PS) (digitized version) ; Volume III (SZ) Paris 1878 (digitized version) (digitized version)  ; Supplément, Part I (AF) Paris 1880 (digitized version) ; Supplément, Part II (GZ) Paris 1880 (digitized version)
  • The theory of the atom in the conception générale du monde . Masson, Paris 1875 (digitized version)
  • Traité de chimie biologique, Part I, Masson, Paris 1880 (digitized version) ; 2nd edition 1885 (digitized version)
  • Introduction à l'étude de la chimie (1885)

literature

  • John Hedley Brooke: Wurtz, Charles-Adolphe . In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Volume 14. Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit 2008, pp. 529-532; galegroup.com
  • Charles Friedel: Notice sur la vie et les travaux de Charles-Adolphe Wurtz . In: Bulletin de la Société Chimique . 43, Paris 1885, pp. I-LXXX; gallica.bnf.fr .
  • August Wilhelm Hofmann : Memory of Adolph Wurtz . In: Reports of the German Chemical Society , Volume 20, 1887, pp. 815–996 gallica.bnf.fr
  • Alan J. Rocke: Nationalizing Science: Adolphe Wurtz and the Battle for French Chemistry . MIT Press, Cambridge MA / London 2001, ISBN 0-262-18204-1 .
  • Natalie Pigeard-Micault: Charles-Adolphe Wurtz: un savant dans la tourmente: entre bouleversements politiques et revendications féministes. Hermann (2011)
  • Wurtz . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 20, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1909, p.  792 .
  • Alan Rocke : Nationalizing Science: Adolphe Wurtz and the Battle for French Chemistry . MIT Press, 2001

Web links

Commons : Charles Adolphe Wurtz  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Adolphe Wurtz  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The indication of Wolfisheim as the place of birth, which is often found in the literature, cannot be confirmed by inspecting the birth register there from 1817.
  2. ^ Charles Adolphe Wurtz Franco-German chemist (1817-84) . In: Encyclopædia Britannica , 1902
  3. ↑ Family genealogy
  4. ↑ Wurtz, Charles Adolphe . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 28 : Vetch - Zymotic Diseases . London 1911, p. 860 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
  5. ↑ biography. Société Chimique de France (French)
  6. ^ Portrait of Sophie Lucie Wurtz
  7. ^ Aubert, Grégory, Balandier and Aubrun: Encyclopaedia universalis . 1975, volume 20, p. 2084.
  8. ^ List of former members since 1666: Letter W. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 16, 2020 (French).
  9. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724: Wurtz, Charles Adolphe. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed March 16, 2020 (Russian).
  10. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1850-1899 . amacad.org (PDF) accessed September 24, 2015
  11. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 26, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Alois Kernbauer (Ed.): The "clinical chemistry" in 1850 . Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, p. 124 ff.
  13. ↑ August Kekulé et al .: Textbook of Organic Chemistry . Volume 1, p. 68 ff. ( Limited preview in Google Book search).
  14. ^ Louis F. Fieser, Mary Fieser: Organic chemistry . 2nd Edition. Verlag Chemie, Weinheim 1972, p. 128
  15. ^ Charles Adolphe Wurtz. Histoire des doctrines chimiques depuis Lavoisier jusqu'à nos jours , Hachette, Paris 1868 (digitized version) also as an introduction to the first volume of Histoire de chimie pure et appliqué , Paris 1869, 2nd edition 1873 (digitized version ) --- Henry Watts (translator ). A history of chemical theory from the age of Lavoisier to the present time . Macmillan, London 1869 (digitized version) --- Alphons Oppenheim (1833–1877, ed.). History of chemical theories from Lavoisier to our time . Published by Robert Oppenheim, Berlin 1870 (digitized version) . Publisher pasted over with: Hannover Verlag der Gebrüder Jänecke (digitized version) --- Charles Adolphe Wurtz. Dictionnaire de chimie pure et appliquée comprenant: la chimie organique et inorganique, la chimie appliquée à l'industrie, à l'agriculture et aux arts, la chimie analytique, la chimie physique et la minéralogie . Volume I, Hachette, Paris 1874, foreword, p. I (digitized version) --- Rudolph Fittig . Remarques à propos du mémoire de MM. Pierre et Puchot … Adolphe Wurtz. Response to M. Fittig . In: Bulletin mensuel de la Société Chimique de Paris , 1869, pp. 266–278 (digitized version )
  16. ↑ Hermann Kolbe . On the state of chemistry in France . In: Journal for practical chemistry , Leipzig 1870 (digitized version) --- Jacob Volhard . The foundation of chemistry by Lavoisier . In: Journal for practical chemistry , NF 2 (1870), pp. 1-47 (digitized version ) --- Louis Pasteur . Une correspondance entre un savant français et un savant allemand pendant la guerre (January 18, 1871) . In: Pasteur Vallery-Radot (ed.). Œuvres de Pasteur . Volume VII: Mélanges scientifiques et littéraires . Paris 1939, pp. 287–291 (digitized version )
  17. ↑ Christoph Meinel . Nationalism and Internationalism in 19th Century Chemistry. In: Perspectives on Pharmaceutical History. Festschrift for Rudolf Schmitz . Graz 1983, pp. 225–242, here: p. 233 (pdf)
personal data
SURNAME Wurtz, Charles Adolphe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wurtz, Karl Adolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French chemist
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1884
Place of death Paris