City of Kazan » Known Kazan citizens » Aleksandr Butlerov (1828 - 1886)

Aleksandr Butlerov (1828 - 1886)


Aleksandr Michailovich Butlerov (1828 - 1886), a Russian chemist, the founder of the theory of organic chemical compounds structure, who also founded the famous Kazan (Butlerov) school of organic chemists. He was born in the family of a landlord, retired officer, in Chistopol of Kazan province on September 3, 1828.
After loosing his mother early in his childhood he was brought up in one of the private boarding schools in Kazan and later he studied at Kazan Grammar school. At the age of 16 Butlerov entered the Natural Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Kazan University, which used to be a center of natural scientific research in Russia at that time. During his initial student years he was very keen on botany and zoology and later influenced by the lectures of K. K. Klaus and N. N. Zinin he got interested in chemistry and decided to commit himself to this science.
In 1849 just after graduating from the University he was proposed to proceed at the chair there as a tutor on the recommendation of Klaus. He defended the Master's thesis in 1851 and got a Doctor's Degree in the Moscow University in 1854. He was appointed the extraordinary chemistry professor of the Kazan University and he was promoted into the position of the ordinary chemistry professor already in 1857.
During his trip abroad in 1857-1858 he established close contacts with many leading chemists of Europe (F. Kekkule, E. Erlenmayer), participated in the sessions of the newly established Paris Chemical Society. Also here, in the laboratory of S. Wurtz he began his first studies, which later served as a basis for the theory of chemical structure. He outlined its main provisions in the report "On the chemical structure of substances" presented at the Congress of German naturalist researchers and doctors in Speyer (September 1861). Following the recommendation of D. I. Mendeleev in 1868 Butlerov was elected the ordinary professor of the Petersburg University, where he worked until the end of his life. In 1870 he was elected the extraordinary academician with the following election as the ordinary academician St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in1874.
Attempts to establish a teaching of chemical structure of organic compounds had been made before Butlerov's times. Numerous works of major scientists engaged in the field of Chemistry at that time, such as F. Kekule, A. Kolbe, S. Wurtz, etc. were dedicated to solving this problem. For example, Kekule after coming to the conclusion about carbon quadrivalency believed that a number of "rational expanded formulas" could exist for the same compound depending on what kind of chemical transformation occurred. He assumed that formulas "in no way can represent the structural design, i.e. the arrangement of atoms in the compound". Kolbe considered fundamentally impossible clarification of the molecules chemical structure.

Butlerov became convinced that structural formulas could not simply be a conditional image of the molecules, but rather they should reflect their real structure. But he emphasized that each molecule had quite a well-defined structure, and it could not combine several such structures. Butlerov formulated the basics of his theory as follows: "Based on the idea that each chemical atom in the composition of the body is directly involved in formation of the latter and operates a certain amount of inherent force (affinity), I call the chemical structure to be distribution of this force resulting in the atoms joining together into a particle". The scientist pointed out that the chemical structure defined "all properties and the relationships of the substances". Thus, Butlerov for the first time in the history of the Organic Chemistry suggested that studying chemical properties of substances it was possible to define their chemical structure, and conversely, by the structural formula of the substance it was possible to judge its properties. Butlerov outlined the ways of determining the chemical structure and formulated the rules that should govern. He considered the organic synthesis and especially the one taking place under moderate conditions ("unelevated temperatures") to be a powerful tool for determining the structure of molecules, when the "radicals" participating in the reaction retained their structure. On the basis of his theory he predicted existence of many organic compounds. Thus, Butlerov received one of the four theoretically predicted butyl alcohols and the scientist decoded its structure and proved the existence of isomers. In accordance with the rules of isomerism, also supervening from Butlerov's theory, he ventured a guess about the existence of four pentanoic acids. The structure of the first three ones was identified by Erlenmayer and Halle in 1871, while the fourth one Butlerov received himself in 1872.

Based on the theory of chemical structures Butlerov began systematic research of polymerization. These studies were continued by his disciples and ended by the discovery of the commercial method of synthetic rubber production by S.V. Lebedev. Numerous synthesis operations performed by Butlerov: ethanol synthesis from ethylene, diisobutenyl, tertiary alcohols, etc., gave the start to the entire industry branches.

The academic activities of Butlerov lasted 35 years and took place in three high schools: Kazan, St. Petersburg Universities and the Women's College (he was involved in its establishment in 1878). Such known personalities as V.V. Markovnikov, A.N. Popov, M.A. Zaitsev (in Kazan), A.E. Favorski, I.L. Kondakov (in St. Petersburg) were among his students.

Butlerov died in Butlerovka village of Kazan Province on August 5, 1886.