Ivan Ivanovich Ostromislensky

Ivan Ivanovich Ostromislenski , Russian Иван Иванович Остромысленский , English transcription Ivan Ostromislensky, (* 8. September 1880 in Oryol , † 16th January 1939 in New York City ) was a Russian-born chemist , known lower other than a pioneer in synthetic rubber and the manufacture of its components ( 1,3-butadiene and its derivative isoprene ).

life and work

Ostromislenski, who came from a noble family, studied at the Moscow Technical School with the degree in 1902 and then at the TH Karlsruhe and at the University of Zurich . In 1906 he was back in Russia and became an assistant at Lomonosov University , became a private lecturer in 1909 and began working with synthetic rubber here. In 1911 he was the first to use a process that was later used as Job's method in complex chemistry. In 1912, due to an internal dispute, he left the university and worked for the Russian manufacturer of rubber Bogatyr . In particular, he developed many synthesis processes for butadiene, including a synthesis named after him in 1905 via the condensation of ethanol and acetaldehyde at high temperatures on aluminum oxide contacts. It was implemented on a large scale in Germany (1930s) and the USA (1942/43). He also developed an isoprene synthesis from pyrolysis of turpentine. He investigated alternatives to sulfur in the vulcanization of rubber and organic additives to synthetic rubber. In 1913 he published a Russian book on rubber.

In the 1910s his research focus shifted to biochemistry, immunology (including experiments on the synthesis of antibodies) and pharmaceuticals and he founded his own laboratory in 1913. In doing so, he pursued his own theories, which later turned out to be erroneous (for example about sleep as self-poisoning of the body or his work on antibodies). From 1918 to 1920 he was a professor at the Pharmaceutical-Technical Institute in Moscow (where he developed a method for a Russian Salvarsan analog, called Arsol). In 1921 he taught at the University of Latvia in Riga , but in 1922 he went to the USA, where he worked for the US Rubber Company, Goodyear and Union Carbide and dealt with synthetic rubber and plastics as well as pharmaceuticals. In 1930 he became a US citizen.

literature

• Winfried Pötsch u. a. Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989

Web links

• Russian biography

Individual evidence

1. ^ Zachary D. Hill, Patrick MacCarthy: Novel approach to Job's method: An undergraduate experiment. In: Journal of Chemical Education. 63, 1986, p. 162, doi : 10.1021 / ed063p162 .