BAYER Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von

Baeyer, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von (Baeyer, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von), 1835-1917 (Germany). Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1905).
Born October 31, 1835 in Berlin, the eldest of five children of Johann Jakob von Baeyer and Eugenie Hittsig. Father - General of the Prussian army, the author of works on geography, who led the then-European Geodetic Survey. Mother - daughter of a famous lawyer and historian Julius Edward Hittsiga. In the house buyers were going to famous people, for example, the writer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann.

At Bayer early became interested in chemistry and in the age of 12 he made the first discovery of chemical. This was a new double salt - copper carbonate and sodium. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in 1853 at Berlin University, where for two years studying mathematics and physics.

After a year of service in the army became a student at Heidelberg University, and began to study chemistry under the guidance of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, who discovered earlier with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff spectral analysis. In Heidelberg, Bayer has focused its attention on the physical chemistry, . but after the publication in 1857 article about hlormetane carried away by the organic chemistry and began working in a private laboratory Friedrich August Kekulц? von Stradonitz and worked on the study of organic arsenic compounds, . for which he was awarded a doctoral degree,
.

Since 1858, within two years he, together with Kekulц? von Stradonitz worked at Ghent University in Belgium and then returned to Berlin, where he lectured in chemistry at the Berlin Technical High School. Under the influence of Kekulц? von Stradonitz Bayer initially investigated the uric acid, and then, beginning in 1865, studied the structure of indigo. Indigo was a valuable blue dye, whose structure was unknown.

Arriving in Strasbourg (1872) and occupying the position of professor of chemistry at Strasbourg University, Bayer has begun to explore other dyes and allocated phenolphthalein and eosin.

In 1875, Bayer was appointed professor of chemistry at the University of Munich. Here, for more than four decades he was the center of attraction for many gifted students. His laboratory became a mecca of organic chemists. He created his own scientific school of many dozens of students. 'I throw people into the sea, and let the floats, how can someone' - so yourself Beyer described his method of teaching.

The applied method of restoring Bayer Indigo allows its structural analysis. Studying other process - the oxidation of Isatin, Bayer in 1883, has managed to synthesize indigo. He was not, however, the first. In 1875, Marcellus Nentsky got indigo oxidation of indole with ozone and in 1900, Bayer acknowledged his priority.

In 1882, Bayer announced the results of its studies of indigo and offered his formula. This formula has invited ridicule chemists. The well-known organic Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, having become acquainted with her, called her 'an umbrella without a handle' and 'tower ladder', but already in 1883, Bayer offered the right formula. In 1900, . Article, . devoted to the history of the synthesis of indigo, . He said: 'At last I have in the hands of the main substance for the synthesis of indigo, . and I feel the same joy, . what, . probably, . experienced Emil Fischer, . when after 15 years of synthesized purine - a raw material in obtaining uric acid ',
. After the research was a product of Bayer indigo industrial production.

Study dyes led Bayer to study the structure of hydrocarbons and their derivatives. First, he found that the benzene molecule, the most important representative of the class of aromatic hydrocarbons, all carbon atoms are equivalent. On this basis, he teamed up with British chemist Henry Edward Armstrong suggested centric formula for benzene, which was eventually rejected, but has played in that period, a role in the development of structural concepts.

Secondly, he studied the structure of saturated analogues of benzene and saturated derivatives with different ring sizes. For them, he, on the one hand, formulated a theory stereochemical voltage, based on the submission of Van't Hoff (Nobel Prize, 1901) and Joseph Achille Le Bel of the tetrahedral structure of carbon. He argued that because of the size of the ring of the molecule can be under stress and that this stress determines not only the shape of the molecule, but also its stability. On the other hand, he first discovered the phenomenon of geometric isomers - cis, trans-isomer. This phenomenon has been moved to another class of hydrocarbons - to unsaturated hydrocarbons, the molecules of which the carbon atoms form a double bond.

In 1885, the day of the 50 th anniversary of Bayer as a sign of recognition he was granted the hereditary title, which gave the right to raise the name of the particle 'von'.

In 1905, Byers was awarded the Nobel Prize 'for his contribution to the development of organic and industrial chemistry works on the coloring substance and hydroaromatic compounds'. Since that time he was sick and could not personally attend the award ceremony, she was handed over germanskogo Ambassador.

Bayer continued research in molecular structure. His work on oxygen compounds led to the conclusion that the similarity of oxonium and ammonium derivatives. He also studied the relationship between molecular structure and optical properties of substances, in particular color.

Until his retirement Bayer continued to enthusiastically engage in research. Deep respect for his art of the experimenter and inquisitive mind. Received many lucrative offers from chemical firms, but always give them up.

He died at his country house on Lake Starnberg, near Munich, August 20, 1917.