Organic chemistry is one of the earlier developments of chemistry. Organic chemistry is chemistry that deals with compound of organic or living being chemicals as seen in Examples of Organic Compounds and Uses.
The start of organic chemistry was quite in early days as human learns to see how living being can be source of substance that have the potential to be of something more valuable and commercially friendly. Each of the discovery and development is thanks to chemist who started organic chemistry. Below is the list of chemists who started organic chemistry and brief explanation about them.
- Jöns Jacob Berzelius
Jöns Jacob Berzelius is the one who coined the term organic chemistry. The term comes as term to name study that learns about compound from biological source.
He termed the name in 1806 as interest upon organic chemistry rose at that time.
Berzellius began to see that there is significant difference between compounds derived from biological creatures and those that do not.
After that he believes that there should be specific study so chemist will be able to explore the depth of the knowledge within it.
Because of that, Berzelius is considered as one of the chemist who started organic chemistry.
- Friedrich Wöhler
Wöhler is a pioneer in organic chemistry and is a well-known chemist who started organic chemistry.
His outstanding work is when he synthesized urea. Urea itself is a derivation of animal urine. It turned out that urea can be beneficial especially in agriculture.
As Wöhler study went popular, farmers began to use it as fertilizer. Contribution of Wöhler is from his experimen by mixing lead cyanate, with ureapure form, ammonium nitrate.
This resulted in organic compound that is very beneficial both in agriculture and industry. Because of this, organic chemistry underwent big development as people become more interesting in exploring organic chemistry.
- George Olah
The next list of chemists who started organic chemistry, who is notable for starting revolutionary development in organic chemistry is George Olah. George Olah ended the controversy of the existence of nonclassical ions among chemist with his discovery of superacids and carbocations.
As interest in organic chemistry grows, Olah started to focus on his experiments related to organic compound until he can develop carbocations, thus develops organic chemistry even further. Moreover, he is also a productive chemist with various achievement in discovery and innovation. Therefore, George Olah certainly is one of notable chemist who started organic chemistry.
- Sir Robert Robinson
Another influential chemist in organic chemistry is Sir Robert Robinson. Robinson is nobel receiver for his research on dyestuffs from organic compound. The first, big contribution of his research is the finding of tropinone.
Tropinone is the precursor in cocaine and it sheds light to alkaloid chemistry and discover mechanism of bicyclic melocule. Not only that, Robinson is also the one who researched on antocyanines, a dyestuff from plant that showed some extracts antocyanine can be beneficial as color dye. As many of his research used mechanism that were not previously used, Robinson received Nobel Prize and marked himself as chemist who started organic chemistry.
- Michel Chevreul
Michel Chevreul was one of the pioneers in developing organic chemistry. His invention of soap from organic compound is an influential result. He worked on fatty acid produced by animal.
By combining organic fat with salt, he was the one who created the early version of soap. Moreover, he is also pioneer of gerontology, a study of ageing as he had lived long for 102 years.
As a France chemists, he was among 72 scientists whose name scribbed on Eiffel Tower. He Was able to discover syearin and isolate oleic acid, in which those compound are important in industry.
Because of that, people remember Chevreul as one of the chemists who started organic chemistry.
Also read: Chemicals for Making Liquid Soap
- William Henry Perkin
Mauveine, a purple die that people use a lot is the discovery from William Henry Perkin. Perkin discovered mauveine accidentally when he worked to syntesize quinine. However, he instead produced mauiveine from aniline extracted from alcohol.
Even though his first research intention is to find cure to malaria, in which it failed, he found mauveine instead. Mauveine is an organic dye with thick and intense purple color. The color later is very suited to industry due to its nature. Because of this discovery, Perkin is one of the notable chemists in organic chemistry. Perkin is also in Chemist Who Has a Solution for Not Succeeding.
- August Kekulé
August Kekulé is a the son of civil servant and French chemist pioneering of organizing chemical structure. He got the inspiration from previous chemists and developed chemical structure and bonds of some organic compound. The idea was from carbon tetravalence.
After finding the bonds, he drew lines to the connected atom, in which now called as chemical structure. This invention certainly was revolutionary as no one used it before. He based the structure from research on organic compounds. Thus, it marked him as chemist who started organic chemistry.
- Adolf Von Baeyer
Adolf Von Baeyer is a German chemist known for his work on synthesized indigo. He is also the one who design nomenclature for cyclic compound. For his outstanding work, he received Nobel Prize in 1905. His first work dealt with syntesis of organic dye from plant, indigo.
Later on, he also discovered pthalein dyes, oxonium salt, nitroso, synthetic fluorescent and many more. He was a productive chemist who explored organic chemistry. As he discovered and designed many new insights in organic chemistry, he is one of the chemists who started organic chemistry.
Other Chemist Who Started Chemistry
Below is the list of other chemists who also have contributed to organic chemistry.
- Emil Fischer
- J Corey
- B Woodward
- C Brown
Living beings are close to us, but their mechanism is a wonder in which many chemical processes occur. In organic chemistry, people can obtain chemicals and utilize their benefit. It shows how important organic chemistry is for the advancement of chemistry itself. That is all about list of chemists who started organic chemistry.
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