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Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer

A pioneer of synthetic organic chemistry

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Abstract

Important discoveries in chemistry most certainly contribute to the industrial and economic developments and indirectly direct the course of history. A majority of Baeyer’s research findings are of this kind. In the pursuit of synthesising a variety of organic compounds for more than half a century, Baeyer became the first chemist who can be considered as classical synthetic organic chemist. He did groundbreaking research in sixteen different areas of organic chemistry, such as dyes, hydroaromatic compounds, polyacetylenes, uric acid and related compounds, natural products. Baeyer’s strain theory is a common textbook topic at the UG level. His work on hydroaromatic compounds strongly supported Kekule’s benzene structure. For this and the work on dyes, he was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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Correspondence to Gopalpur Nagendrappa.

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G Nagendrappa was a Professor of Organic Chemistry at Bangalore University, and Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Sri Ramachandra (Medical) University, Chennai. He is currently in Jain University, Bangalore. He continues to teach and do research. His work is in the area of organosilicon chemistry, synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry, and claycatalysed organic reactions (Green Chemistry).

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Nagendrappa, G. Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer. Reson 19, 489–522 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-014-0055-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-014-0055-5

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