Abstract
February 2021 marked the 160th anniversary of the birth of N.D. Zelinskii, who worked for more than 50 years at Moscow University and headed a large school of organic chemists. The present historical sketch of the life and scientific achievements of Nikolai Zelinskii highlights his contribution to the development of catalysis, petroleum chemistry, and hydrocarbon chemistry, as well as the wide range of his interests in the field of organic chemistry.
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Notes
Note that N.D. Zelinskii wrote numerous letters to the head of state in defense of his arrested colleagues.
In the second half of the XIX century this town was part of the Kherson province of the Russian Empire. In Soviet times, it was part of the Moldavian SSR. At present Tiraspol is the capital of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
Richelieu Gymnasium is the oldest gymnasium in Odessa, originally located at the Richelieu Lyceum named after its founder Duke A.E. de Richelieu, the Governor-general of Novorossia. After the Lyceum was transformed into the Novorossiisk University (1862), the gymnasium was separated into an independent institution, and in 1863 it was named the Richelieu Gymnasium.
For the painting “Portrait of Academician N.D. Zelinskii” artist P.I. Kotov was awarded the Stalin (State) Prize in 1948.
His first work on the addition to methylglycidal acid, performed under the direction of P.G. Melikishvili, was published in May 1884 [Zelinskii, N.D., O produkte prisoedineniya metilamina k β-metilglitsidnoi kislote (On the Addition Product of Methylamine to β-Methylglycidic Acid)], Zh. Raussk. Fiz.-Khim. Obshch., 1884, vol. 16, pp. 687–688.
Zelinskii, N.D., K voprosu ob izomerii v tiofenovom ryadu (On the Isomerism in the Thiophene Series), Odessa: Schulze, 1889.
This section of the Chair was named the “Division of Distinguished Professor Markovnikov”.
1Zelinskii moved to the Moscow University at the age of 32.
It is known that V.V. Markovnikov initiated petrochemical research at the Moscow University back in the early 1880s.
It turned out, in particular, that soda lime granules quickly absorb moisture and liquefies, thereby preventing the access of air to the breathing tube.
Together with V.S. Sadikov, Zelinskii developed a method for producing activated carbon for gas masks by calcining charcoal, which significantly increased its absorption capacity. Zelinskii was the first to develop a method for activating coal with a combination of steam and a low-boiling organic solvent; see above.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to A.I. Nudel, Chief Curator of the Polytechnic Museum, Moscow, and L.V. Saulyak, Head of the Memorial House of N.D. Zelinskii in Tiraspol (branch of the Tiraspol United Museum, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic), for the provision of photographic materials.
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Translated from Zhurnal Organicheskoi Khimii, 2021, Vol. 57, No. 8, pp. 1060–1083 https://doi.org/10.31857/S0514749221080012.
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Bogatova, T.V., Beloglazkina, E.K. & Nenaidenko, V.G. N. D. Zelinskii: To the 160th Anniversary of Birth. Russ J Org Chem 57, 1191–1211 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1070428021080017
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1070428021080017