Nikolay Nikolaevich Zinin (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Зи́нин; 25 August 1812 – 18 February 1880) was a Russian organic chemist.

Life

Zinin was born in Shusha where his father served as diplomatic employee. Nicolay became orphan after cholera pandemic when his parents and sister died. He studied at the University of Kazan where he graduated in mathematics but he started teaching chemistry in 1835. To improve his skills he was asked to study in Europe for some time, which he did between 1838 and 1841. He studied with Justus Liebig in Giessen, where he finished his research on the

benzoin condensation The benzoin addition is an addition reaction involving two aldehydes. The reaction generally occurs between aromatic aldehydes or glyoxals, and results in formation of an acyloin. In the classic example, benzaldehyde is converted to benzoin. Th ...

, which was discovered by Liebig several years before. He presented his research results at the University of Saint Petersburg, where he received his Ph.D. He became Professor for Chemistry in the same year at the University of Kazan and left for the University of Saint Petersburg in 1847 where he also became a member of the

St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

and first president of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society (1868–1877). In St. Petersburg, professor Zinin was a private teacher of chemistry to the young

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( , ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedes, Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel ...

Work

He is known for the so-called Zinin reaction or Zinin reduction, in which

nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitroalkene, ...

aromates like

nitrobenzene Nitrobenzene is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5 NO2. It is a water-insoluble pale yellow oil with an almond-like odor. It freezes to give greenish-yellow crystals. It is produced on a large scale from benzene as a precursor t ...

are converted to

amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia (), wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituen ...

s by reduction with ammonium

sulfide Sulfide (British English also sulphide) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to chemical compounds lar ...

s. In 1842 Zinin played an important role in identifying

aniline Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6 H5 NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the simplest aromatic amine In organic chemistry, an aromatic amine is an organic compound consisting of an aroma ...

References

External links

Biography

1812 births 1880 deaths Organic chemists Scientists from Shusha Chemists from the Russian Empire Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences {{Russia-chemist-stub