Heinrich Debus (chemist)

Heinrich Debus (13 July 1824 – 9 December 1916) was a German chemist.

Education and career

In 1938, he attended a trade school in Kassel, where he was taught by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. He studied chemistry from 1845 to 1848 in Marburg, and served as Bunsen's assistant from 1847. In 1848, he earned his doctorate by investigating a red madder dye. He completed his habilitation in 1851 after Bunsen left for Breslau. At the suggestion of Frederick Augustus Genth, Debus was named Bunsen's successor at Marburg.

In 1858, Debus first synthesized imidazole from glyoxal, ammonia, and formaldehyde.^[1] The Debus-Radziszewski imidazole synthesis was named after him and Bronisław Leonard Radziszewski ^[2]

References

1. ^ Debus, Heinrich (1858). "Ueber die Einwirkung des Ammoniaks auf Glyoxal". Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie 107 (2): 199. doi:10.1002/jlac.18581070209. 
2. ^ Radzisewski, Br. (1882). "Ueber Glyoxalin und seine Homologe". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 15 (2): 2706. doi:10.1002/cber.188201502245. 

Further reading

• Rogerson, H.; Griffiths, G.; Titherley, A. W.; McCourt, G. P.; Nichols, J. A.; Saunders, W. H.; Smetham, Alfred; Thomson, John M. et al. (1917). "Obituary notices". Journal of the Chemical Society 111: 325. doi:10.1039/CT9171100312. 
• t., T. E. (1916). "Prof. H. Debus, F.R.S". Nature 96 (196): 515. doi:10.1038/096515a0.