Julius Arthur Nieuwland

Father Julius Nieuwland in his laboratory

Julius Arthur Nieuwland (born February 14, 1878 in Hansbeke , Belgium , † June 11, 1936 in Washington ) was an American botanist , chemist and Catholic clergyman .

biography

Originally from Belgium , Nieuwland began studying chemistry and botany at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend (Indiana) after immigrating to the USA . He then graduated from the seminary at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. During his doctorate , he observed the reaction of acetylene and arsenic (III) chloride , which led to the production of a highly toxic gas . However, due to the danger he did not continue this research.

After completing his studies, he returned in 1904 to the University of Notre Dame, where he was appointed professor of botany. There he described a number of new plant species (his botanical author abbreviation is " Nieuwl. "). By him while still a student observations of the acetylene arsenic trichloride reaction were later developed and led finally in 1918 to the development of after the chemist Winford Lee Lewis named lewisite , which by the US Army as a poison gas in World War I was used.

In 1918 he took over the professorship for organic chemistry at the University of Notre Dame . In the 1920s he began as such with further research into the reactions of acetylene, which he carried out from 1925 in collaboration with the chemists of the DuPont company under the direction of Wallace Hume Carothers . This research finally led in April 1930 to the synthesis of neoprene , the first commercially successful synthetic rubber , which was initially called duprene.

literature

• Chambers Biographical Dictionary, pp. 1122, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2
• Joel A. Vilensky: Dew of Death: The Story of Lewisite, America's World War I Weapon of Mass Destruction, Indiana University Press 2005

Web links

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Julius Arthur Nieuwland at the IPNI