August Kekulé
| August Kekulé | |
|---|---|
August Kekulé
|
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| Born |
7 September 1829 Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse |
| Died | 13 July 1896 (aged 66) Bonn, German Empire |
| Nationality | Germany |
| Institutions |
University of Heidelberg University of Ghent University of Bonn |
| Doctoral students |
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Hermann Emil Fischer, Adolf von Baeyer, Richard Anschütz |
| Known for | Theory of chemical structure Tetravalence of carbon Structure of benzene |
| Influences |
Alexander Williamson Charles Gerhardt Auguste Laurent William Odling Charles Adolphe Wurtz |
| Notable awards | Copley Medal (1885) |
Friedrich August Kekulé, later Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz (German: [ˈfriːdrɪç ˈaʊɡʊst ˈkekuːle fɔn ʃtraˈdoːnɪts]; 7 September 1829 – 13 July 1896) was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekulé was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially in theoretical chemistry. He was the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure.
Kekulé never used his first given name; he was known throughout his life as August Kekulé. After he was ennobled by the Kaiser in 1895, he adopted the name August Kekule von Stradonitz, without the French acute accent over the second "e". The French accent had apparently been added to the name by Kekulé's father during the Napoleonic occupation of Hesse by France, to ensure that French-speaking people pronounced the third syllable.
The son of a civil servant, Kekulé was born in Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. After graduating from secondary school (the Grand Ducal Gymnasium in Darmstadt), in the fall of 1847 he entered the University of Giessen, with the intention of studying architecture. After hearing the lectures of Justus von Liebig in his first semester, he decided to study chemistry. Following four years of study in Giessen and a brief compulsory military service, he took temporary assistantships in Paris (1851–52), in Chur, Switzerland (1852–53), and in London (1853–55), where he was decisively influenced by Alexander Williamson. His Giessen doctoral degree was awarded in the summer of 1852.
In 1856 Kekulé became Privatdozent at the University of Heidelberg. In 1858 he was hired as full professor at the University of Ghent, then in 1867 he was called to Bonn, where he remained for the rest of his career. Basing his ideas on those of predecessors such as Williamson, Edward Frankland, William Odling, Auguste Laurent, Charles-Adolphe Wurtz and others, Kekulé was the principal formulator of the theory of chemical structure (1857–58). This theory proceeds from the idea of atomic valence, especially the tetravalence of carbon (which Kekulé announced late in 1857) and the ability of carbon atoms to link to each other (announced in a paper published in May 1858), to the determination of the bonding order of all of the atoms in a molecule. Archibald Scott Couper independently arrived at the idea of self-linking of carbon atoms (his paper appeared in June 1858), and provided the first molecular formulas where lines symbolize bonds connecting the atoms. For organic chemists, the theory of structure provided dramatic new clarity of understanding, and a reliable guide to both analytic and especially synthetic work. As a consequence, the field of organic chemistry developed explosively from this point. Among those who were most active in pursuing early structural investigations were, in addition to Kekulé and Couper, Frankland, Wurtz, Alexander Crum Brown, Emil Erlenmeyer, and Alexander Butlerov.
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