Carl Theodore Liebermann (23 February 1842 – 28 December 1914) was a German chemist and student of

Adolf von Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo and developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC or ...

Life

Liebermann first studied at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

where Robert Wilhelm Bunsen was teaching. He then joined the group of

at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Will ...

where he received his PhD in 1865. Together with

Carl Gräbe Carl Gräbe (; 24 February 1841 – 19 January 1927) was a German industrial and academic chemist from Frankfurt am Main who held professorships in his field at Leipzig, Königsberg, and Geneva. He is known for the first synthesis of t ...

, Liebermann synthesised the orange-red dye

alizarin Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Histori ...

in 1868. After his habilitation in 1870 he became professor at the University of Berlin after Adolf von Baeyer left for the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ...

. Shortly after Liebermann retired, in 1914, he died.

Work

In 1826, the French chemist

Pierre Jean Robiquet Pierre Jean Robiquet (13 January 1780 – 29 April 1840) was a French chemist. He laid founding work in identifying amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of proteins. He did this through recognizing the first of them, asparagine, in 1806 ...

had isolated from the root of a plant,

madder ''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and its best-known spe ...

, and defined the structure of, alizarin, a remarkable red dye. Liebermann's 1868 discovery that alizarin can be reduced to form

anthracene Anthracene is a solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) of formula C14H10, consisting of three fused benzene rings. It is a component of coal tar. Anthracene is used in the production of the red dye alizarin and other dyes. Anthracene is ...

, which is an abundant component in coal tar, opened the road for synthetic alizarin. The patent of Liebermann and

for the synthesis of alizarin from anthracene was filed one day before the patent of

William Henry Perkin Sir William Henry Perkin (12 March 1838 – 14 July 1907) was a British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first commercial synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in trying ...

. The synthesis is a chlorination or bromination of anthracene with a subsequent oxidation forming the alizarin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebermann, Carl Theodore 1842 births 1914 deaths 19th-century German chemists 19th-century German Jews 20th-century German chemists Jewish chemists Humboldt University of Berlin faculty Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala

Life

Work

See also

References