Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov

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Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov
1951 Alexander Butlerov on a Soviet postage stamp

Alexander Butlerov ( Russian Александр Михайлович Бутлеров , scientific. Transliteration Aleksandr Butlerov Michajlovič ; emphasis: Alexander Butlerov ; born August 25 . Jul / 6. September  1828 greg. In Chistopol ; † August 5 jul. / 17th August  1886 greg . in Biarritz - according to other information in Butlerowka ) was a Russian chemist and professor.

Life

Butlerow studied chemistry from 1844 to 1849 at the University of Kazan . In 1854 he received his doctorate from Moscow University . From 1857 Butlerow was again active in Kazan as a professor of chemistry. From 1868 to 1885 he held a chair in chemistry at the University of Saint Petersburg . Butlerow spoke and wrote very good German. By Emil Erlenmeyer even offering him had been made, the " Journal of Chemical hang" in Russia. He was a member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors .

Services

Butlerow introduced the terms structure and structural formula into chemistry on the basis of studies on isomers . As a building block of the organic compounds, he started from a tetravalent carbon atom and defined organic chemistry as the “chemistry of carbon compounds.” In 1861, his research established the concept of chemical structure and then served to consolidate structural theory, including the synthesis of theoretically possible isomers . In 1863, for example, he synthesized tert- butanol from acetyl chloride and dimethyl zinc . Butlerow was the first to systematically investigate polymerization reactions . Starting from milk of lime and formaldehyde , he synthesized a mixture of sugars . This sugar synthesis, the formose reaction , produces a mixture that mainly consists of pentoses and hexoses . This was the first complete synthesis of these higher carbohydrates (including the sweet monosaccharides) from a simple building block in a single step. Butlerow recognized the phenomenon later called " tautomerism " by Conrad Peter Laar as a dynamic equilibrium between two isomers. He realized commercial applications of chemistry and founded factories for the production of soaps and matches . In addition, he campaigned for the development of agriculture in Russia.

Butlerov published one of the first chemistry textbooks in the Russian language. His Wwedenije k Polnomu isutscheniu organitscheskoi chimii ("Introduction to the Study of Organic Chemistry") published in 1864 was also the first Russian textbook to be translated into German.

Works (selection)

  • Введение к полному изучению органической химии , Kazan 1864
  • Organic Chemistry Textbook , 1868

Honors (selection)

The lunar crater Butlerov.

A monument to him was erected in Kazan. The Kazan Federal University has had an institute of chemistry named after him since 1929, and a Butlerov monument at the entrance to its garden since 1978. In 1951 the Russian postage stamp, shown above on the right, appeared with his portrait. The lunar crater Butlerov on the back of the moon was named after him.

literature

  • Maks A. Bloch: AM Butlerow - life and work . Vogel, Leipzig 1929 (from: Archive for the history of mathematics, natural sciences and technology . 12, pp. 122–145)
  • WN Dawydoff: About the origin of the chemical structure theory. With special consideration of the work of AM Butlerow . Verlag Technik, Berlin 1957
  • J. Gillis: Een prioriteitsaanspraak van Butlerow dead stas court in 1862 en aanmerkingen van Kekulé . Paleis d. Acad., Bruxelles 1958 (M ededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Class of Wetenschappen . Vol. 20, No. 10)
  • Otto Krätz : Five letters from AM Butlerow to E. Erlenmeyer . (From 1870 to 1876) . In: Publications Research Institute of the German Museum for the History of Natural Sciences and Technology . Series A, Kleine Mitteilungen 77, pp. 305-310 (from: Physis . Vol. 11. 1969)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Members of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors 1857
  2. Alexander Butlerov: Something about the chemical structure of the body. In: Emil Erlenmeyer (Hrsg.): Journal for Chemistry and Pharmacy . tape 4 . Ferdinand Enke, 1861, ISSN  0258-1620 , p. 549–560 ( online on the pages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek BSB Munich - limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. Alexander Butlerov: Formation of a sugar-like substance through synthesis . In: Friedrich Wöhler, Justus Liebig, Hermann Kopp (eds.): Justus Liebig's annals of chemistry . tape 120 , no. 3 . CF Winter'sche Verlagshandlung, January 1861, ISSN  1099-0690 , p. 295–298 , doi : 10.1002 / jlac.18611200308 ( online on the pages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek BSB ).
  4. ^ Winfried R. Pötsch, Annelore Fischer and Wolfgang Müller with the collaboration of Heinz Cassebaum : Lexicon of important chemists . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1988, p. 76, ISBN 3-323-00185-0 .
  5. ^ Michael D. Gordin: Scientific Babel . University of Chicago Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-226-00029-9 , Chapter 3, Translating Textbooks , pp. 98-103 .
  6. Alexander Michailowitsch Butlerow: Textbook of organic chemistry . as an introduction to the special study of these. German edition translated from Russian, revised by the author and supplemented with additions. Quandt & Handel, Leipzig 1868 (752 pp., Online in the Internet Archive - Russian: Введение к полному изучению органической химии . Kazan 1864. Translated by E. Roesch).
  7. ^ Butlerow on zeno.org (from: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 3. Leipzig 1905, p. 660)
  8. Kazan Federal University, Alexander Butlerow Institute of Chemistry
  9. Kazan city monument to Butlerov AM