Nylander's reagent

Nylander's reagent is used in organic analysis to detect reducing functional groups , in particular aldehydes . The reagent was invented to detect reducing sugars in urine .

The operating principle consists in the reduction of the ions of the semiprecious metal bismuth complexed with tartrate :

${\displaystyle \mathrm {3\ R{-}CHO+2\ Bi^{3+}+9\ OH^{-}\longrightarrow 3\ R{-}CO_{2}^{-}+6\ H_{2}O+2\ Bi} }$

Aldehydes react with alkaline bismuth salt solution containing tartrate to form carboxylic acids, water and black metallic bismuth.

The tartrate as a complexing agent ensures that no basic bismuth salts precipitate at the high pH value, and at the same time the redox potential of bismuth (III) is set in such a way that aldehydes are detected as selectively as possible. The reagent is named after the Swedish chemist Claus Wilhelm Gabriel Nylander (1835–1907), who lectured at Lund University .

literature

• Georg Schwedt: Sugar-sweet chemistry. John Wiley & Sons, 2012, ISBN 978-3-527-66001-8 , p. 100.
• ME Rehfuss, PB Hawk: A study of Nylander's reaction . In: J. Biol. Chem. (1910), Volume 7, pp. 273-286. PDF .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Emil Nylander: About alkaline bismuth solution as a reagent for glucose in urine , magazine for physiological chemistry. Volume 8, Issue 3, 1884, pages 175-185 abstract
2. ↑ S. Ebel and HJ Roth (Editor): Encyclopedia of Pharmacy , Georg Thieme Verlag, 1987, p 470, ISBN 3-13-672201-9 .
3. ↑ Eberhard Breitmaier, Günther Jung: Organic chemistry. 5th edition, Thieme, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-13-541505-8 . P. 336.
4. ^ Lexicon of important chemists by Winfried R. Pötsch (lead); Annelore Fischer; Wolfgang Müller, with the collaboration of Heinz Cassebaum , Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-323-00185-0 , p. 326.