Adolf von Baeyer
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (German pronunciation: [ˈaːdɔlf fɔn ˈbaɪɐ] ; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo[2] and developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC organic nomenclature). He was ennobled in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1885 and was the 1905 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[3]
For the founder of the pharmaceutical company Bayer, see Friedrich Bayer.
Adolf von Baeyer
20 August 1917 (aged 81)
German
3; including Otto.
Davy Medal (1881)
Liebig Medal (1903)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1905)
Elliott Cresson Medal (1912)
Academic career and achievements[edit]
After completing his doctorate, he followed Kekulé to the University of Ghent, when Kekulé became professor there. He became a lecturer at the Gewerbeinstitut Berlin (Royal Trade Academy) in 1860 and a professor at the University of Strasbourg in 1871. In 1875, he succeeded Justus von Liebig as Chemistry Professor at the University of Munich.[10]
Baeyer's chief achievements include the synthesis and description of the plant dye indigo, the discovery of the phthalein dyes, and the investigation of polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, nitroso compounds (1869) and uric acid derivatives (1860 and onwards) (including the discovery of barbituric acid (1864), the parent compound of the barbiturates). He was the first to propose the correct formula for indole in 1869, after publishing the first synthesis three years earlier. His contributions to theoretical chemistry include the 'strain' (Spannung) theory of triple bonds and strain theory in small carbon rings.[11]
In 1871 he discovered the synthesis of phenolphthalein by condensation of phthalic anhydride with two equivalents of phenol under acidic conditions (hence the name). That same year he was the first to obtain synthetic fluorescein, a fluorophore pigment which is similar to naturally occurring pyoverdin that is synthesised by microorganisms (e.g., by some fluorescent strains of Pseudomonas). Baeyer named his finding "resorcinphthalein" as he had synthesised it from phthalic anhydride and resorcinol. The term fluorescein would not start to be used until 1878.
In 1872 he experimented with phenol and formaldehyde; the resinous product[12] was a precursor for Leo Baekeland's later commercialization of Bakelite.
In 1881 the Royal Society of London awarded Baeyer the Davy Medal for his work with indigo. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1884.[13] In 1905 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "in recognition of his services in the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds", and he continued in full active work as one of the best-known teachers in the world of organic chemistry up to within a year of his death.[14]
The Adolf von Baeyer Medal has been awarded annually since 1911.
His name is reflected in various "name reactions" as the Baeyer–Villiger oxidation and Baeyer's reagent. There is also the Von Baeyer nomenclature in structural chemistry and Baeyer strain theory (which granted him the Nobel prize) of alicyclic compounds.
In 2009 von Baeyer lunar crater was named after him.