Hermann Kolbe | |
|---|---|
 Kolbe, c. 1860 | |
| Born | Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (1818-09-27)27 September 1818 Elliehausen,Kingdom of Hanover |
| Died | 25 November 1884(1884-11-25) (aged 66) |
| Alma mater | University of Marburg |
| Known for | Kolbe electrolysis, Kolbe–Schmitt reaction Kolbe nitrile synthesis |
| Awards | Davy Medal(1884) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemist |
| Institutions | University of Marburg University of Leipzig |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Bunsen Friedrich Wöhler |
| Doctoral students | Peter Griess Aleksandr Mikhailovich Zaitsev Theodor Curtius Ernst Otto Beckmann Carl Graebe Oscar Loew Constantin Fahlberg Nikolai Menshutkin Vladimir Markovnikov Jacob Volhard Ludwig Mond Alexander Crum Brown Maxwell Simpson Frederick Guthrie [Note, not primary advisor for all in this list] |
Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (27 September 1818 – 25 November 1884[1]) was a German chemist and academic, and a major contributor to the birth of modernorganic chemistry. He was a professor atMarburg andLeipzig. Kolbe was the first to apply the termsynthesis in a chemical context, and contributed to the philosophical demise ofvitalism through synthesis of theorganic substance acetic acid fromcarbon disulfide, and also contributed to the development ofstructural theory. This was done via modifications to the idea of "radicals" and accurate prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols, and to the emerging array of organic reactions through hisKolbe electrolysis of carboxylate salts, theKolbe-Schmitt reaction in the preparation ofaspirin and theKolbe nitrile synthesis. After studies withWöhler andBunsen, Kolbe was involved with the early internationalization of chemistry through work in London (withFrankland). He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and won theRoyal Society of London's Davy Medal in the year of his death. Despite these accomplishments and his training important members of the next generation of chemists (includingZaitsev,Curtius,Beckmann,Graebe,Markovnikov, and others), Kolbe is best remembered for editing theJournal für Praktische Chemie for more than a decade, in which his vituperative essays onKekulé's structure of benzene,van't Hoff's theory on the origin ofchirality andBaeyer's reforms of nomenclature were personally critical and linguistically violent. Kolbe died of a heart attack inLeipzig at age 66, six years after the death of his wife, Charlotte.
Kolbe was born in Elliehausen, nearGöttingen,Kingdom of Hanover (Germany) as the eldest son of aProtestant pastor. At the age of 13, he entered the Göttingen Gymnasium, residing at the home of one of the professors. He obtained the leaving certificate (theAbitur) six years later. He had become passionate about the study ofchemistry, matriculating at theUniversity of Göttingen in the spring of 1838 in order to study with the famous chemistFriedrich Wöhler.[1]
In 1842, he became an assistant toRobert Bunsen at thePhilipps-Universität Marburg. He took his doctoral degree in 1843 at the same university. A new opportunity arose in 1845, when he became assistant toLyon Playfair at the newMuseum of Economic Geology in London and a close friend ofEdward Frankland. From 1847, he was engaged in editing theHandwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie (Dictionary of Pure and Applied Chemistry) edited byJustus von Liebig,Wöhler, andJohann Christian Poggendorff, and he also wrote an important textbook. In 1851, Kolbe succeeded Bunsen as professor of chemistry at Marburg and, in 1865, he was called to theUniversität Leipzig. In 1864, he was elected a foreign member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences.[2] He was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1874.[3]
In 1853, he married Charlotte, the daughter of General-Major Wilhelm von Bardeleben. His wife died in 1876 after 23 years of happy marriage. They had four children.
As late as the 1840s, and despiteFriedrich Wöhler's synthesis of urea in 1828, some chemists still believed in the doctrine ofvitalism, according to which a special life-force was necessary to create "organic" (i.e., in its original meaning, biologically derived) compounds. Kolbe promoted the idea thatorganic compounds could be derived from substances clearly sourced from outside this "organic" context, directly or indirectly, by substitution processes. (Hence, while by modern definitions, he was converting oneorganic molecule to another, by the parlance of his era, he was converting "inorganic"—anorganisch—substances into "organic" ones only thought accessible through vital processes.) He validated his theory by convertingcarbon disulfide (CS2) toacetic acid (CH3COOH) in several steps (1843–45). Kolbe also introduced a modified idea of structuralradicals, so contributing to the development ofstructural theory. A dramatic success came when his theoretical prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiaryalcohols was confirmed by the synthesis of the first of these classes of organic molecules. Kolbe was the first person to use the wordsynthesis in its present-day meaning,[4] and contributed a number of new chemical reactions.[1]
In particular, Kolbe developed procedures for theelectrolysis of the salts offatty and othercarboxylic acids (Kolbe electrolysis)[5][non-primary source needed][6] and preparedsalicylic acid, a building block ofaspirin in a process calledKolbe synthesis orKolbe-Schmitt reaction.[7][8] His method for the synthesis of nitriles is called theKolbe nitrile synthesis,[9] and withEdward Frankland he found thatnitriles can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding acids.[10]In addition to his own bench research and scholarly and editorial work, Kolbe oversaw student research at Leipzig and especially at Marburg; students spending time under his tutelage includedPeter Griess,Aleksandr Mikhailovich Zaitsev (known forZaitsev's rule predicting the product composition of elimination reactions),Theodor Curtius (discoverer ofdiazo compounds,hydrazines, and theCurtius rearrangement),Ernst Otto Beckmann (discoverer of theBeckmann rearrangement),Carl Graebe (discoverer ofalizarin),Oscar Loew,Constantin Fahlberg,Nikolai Menshutkin,Vladimir Markovnikov (first to describecarbocycles smaller and larger thancyclohexane, and known forMarkovnikov's rule describing addition reactions to alkenes),Jacob Volhard,Ludwig Mond,Alexander Crum Brown (first to describe the double bond of ethylene),Maxwell Simpson, andFrederick Guthrie.[11]
Besides his work forperiodicals he wrote numerous books[12]Kolbe served for more than a decade as what, in modern terms, would be understood the senior editor of theJournal für Praktische Chemie (Journal of practical chemistry, from 1870 to 1884), Kolbe was sometimes so severely critical of the work of others, especially after about 1874, that some wondered whether he might have been suffering a mental illness. He was intolerant of what he regarded as loose speculation parading as theory, and sought through his writings to save his beloved science of chemistry from what he regarded as the scourge of modern structural theory.[1]
His rejection of structural chemistry, especially the theories of the structure of benzene byAugust Kekulé, the theory of theasymmetric carbon atom byJ.H. van't Hoff, and the reform of chemical nomenclature byAdolf von Baeyer, was expressed in his vituperative articles in theJournal für Praktische Chemie. Some translated quotes illustrate his manner of articulating the deep conflict between his interpretation of chemistry and that of the structural chemists:
«...Baeyer is an excellent experimentor, but he is only an empiricist, lacking sense and capability, and his interpretations of his experiments show particular deficiency in his familiarity with the principles of true science...»[1][13]
The violence of his language worked to limit his posthumous reputation.[14]
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