Cornelis Adriaan Lobry van Troostenburg de Bruyn (1 January 1857 – 23 July 1904) was a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

from

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Biography

De Bruyn was born on in Leeuwarden, where his father, Nicholaas Lobry van Troostenburg de Bruyn, was a physician in practice. The boy was in due time sent to the high school of the town ('' Hogere Burgerschool ''), and subsequently for a year to a gymnasium. In 1875, he entered the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

, and in 1883, while acting as assistant to Professor Franchimont, he produced his dissertation and obtained his doctorate. The subject of this thesis was the interaction of the three

dinitrobenzene Dinitrobenzenes are chemical compounds composed of a benzene ring and two nitro group In organic chemistry, nitro compounds are organic compounds that contain one or more nitro functional groups (). The nitro group is one of the most common ex ...

s with potassium cyanide in alcoholic solution, an investigation to which he several times returned, and the first results of which he published in 1904. About this time De Bruyn went to Paris and worked for a few months in the laboratories of Charles-Adolphe Wurtz and of

Charles Friedel Charles Friedel (; 12 March 1832 – 20 April 1899) was a French chemist and mineralogist. Life A native of Strasbourg, France, he was a student of Louis Pasteur at the Sorbonne. In 1876, he became a professor of chemistry and mineralogy at t ...

, returning to Leiden in 1884, where he remained until the following year. Having been appointed as a chemist to the Government Department of Marine, his official duties naturally brought before his notice new problems, especially those connected with the manufacture and properties of explosives, and to this work he devoted much attention for 11 years. During this period he began the study of methyl and ethyl alcohols in the character of solvents, which led him on to the isolation of

hydroxylamine Hydroxylamine is an inorganic compound with the formula . The material is a white crystalline, hygroscopic compound.Greenwood and Earnshaw. ''Chemistry of the Elements.'' 2nd Edition. Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd. pp. 431–43 ...

and hydrazine.See: * C. A. Lobry de Bruyn (1894) "''Sur l'hydrazine (diamide) libre''" (On free hydrazine (diamide)), ''Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas'', 13 (8) : 433-440. * C. A. Lobry de Bruyn (1895) "''Sur l'hydrate d'hydrazine''" (On the hydrate of hydrazine), ''Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas'', 14 (3) : 85-88. * C. A. Lobry de Bruyn (1896) "''L'hydrazine libre I''" (Free hydrazine, Part 1), ''Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas'', 15 (6): 174-184. Neither of these bases had up to this time been obtained in a free state, owing probably to the use of water as the solvent. De Bruyn found that hydroxylamine hydrochloride dissolves in about six times its weight of absolute methyl alcohol, and that when mixed with the calculated quantity of

sodium methoxide Sodium methoxide is the simplest sodium alkoxide. With the formula , it is a white solid, which is formed by the deprotonation of methanol. Itis a widely used reagent in industry and the laboratory. It is also a dangerously caustic base. P ...

, also dissolved in methyl alcohol, sodium chloride is precipitated, and a solution of hydroxylamine is obtained. In 1896, de Bruyn was appointed to succeed Gunning as Professor of

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

and pharmacy in the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

, having declined the position of State Chemist offered to him in 1895 by the Government of the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

. He also turned down offers of a professorship from the universities of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1901 and Utrecht in 1902, in favor of staying in Amsterdam. In 1884, de Bruyn married Maria Simon Thomas, daughter of H. E. Simon Thomas, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Leiden. They had two sons and two daughters.

Scientific work

De Bruyn studied the three isomers of

, setting the stage for the discovery of

Meisenheimer complex A Meisenheimer complex or Jackson–Meisenheimer complex in organic chemistry is a 1:1 reaction adduct between an arene carrying electron withdrawing groups and a nucleophile. These complexes are found as reactive intermediates in nucleophilic aroma ...

es. In 1885 he, together with Willem Alberda van Ekenstein, discovered

tautomer Tautomers () are structural isomers (constitutional isomers) of chemical compounds that readily interconvert. The chemical reaction interconverting the two is called tautomerization. This conversion commonly results from the relocation of a hyd ...

ism in sugars, now known as the Lobry de Bruyn–van Ekenstein transformation. De Bruyn also investigated

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s and synthesized

(1891) and hydrazine (1894).

References

External links

*Dutch language bi
Link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lobry van Troostenburg de Bruyn, Cornelis Adriaan 1857 births 1904 deaths 19th-century Dutch chemists People from Leeuwarden Leiden University alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam