Anton Friedrich Robert Behrend (17 December 1856 – 15 September 1926) was a German analytical organic chemist who made pioneering studies of

stereochemistry Stereochemistry, a subdiscipline of chemistry, involves the study of the relative spatial arrangement of atoms that form the structure of molecules and their manipulation. The study of stereochemistry focuses on the relationships between stereois ...

and

isomerism In chemistry, isomers are molecules or polyatomic ions with identical molecular formulae – that is, same number of atoms of each element – but distinct arrangements of atoms in space. Isomerism is existence or possibility of isomers. Iso ...

. He was also the first to synthesize

uric acid Uric acid is a heterocyclic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen with the formula C5H4N4O3. It forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates, such as ammonium acid urate. Uric acid is a product of the metabolic breakdown of ...

and introduced

potentiometric titration Potentiometric titration is a technique similar to direct titration of a redox reaction. It is a useful means of characterizing an acid. No indicator is used; instead the potential is measured across the analyte, typically an electrolyte solution. ...

. The Behrend rearrangement reaction of

nitrones In organic chemistry, a nitrone is a functional group consisting of an ''N''-oxide of an imine. The general structure is , where R’ is not a hydrogen. A nitrone is a 1,3-dipole, and is used in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. Other reactions of n ...

is named after him. Behrend was born in Harburg to Karl, a trader and his wife Louise Elisabeth Margarethe Carol née Himbeck. He grew up in Hamburg. He joined the infantry regiment in 1876 and studied law for some time and then shifted to physics under Emil Gabriel Warburg. In 1877-78 he tried to study chemistry at Leipzig under Herman Kolbe but was not accepted as he knew nothing. He then worked under

Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (; 2 October 1826 – 24 March 1899) was a German physicist and scientific author. Life Wiedemann was born in Berlin the son of a merchant who died two years later. Following the death of his mother in 1842 he lived wi ...

and received a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1881. He became a professor in 1889 and in 1897, he moved to the Technical College of Hannover working on stereochemistry. He was among the first to synthesize uric acid, and

cucurbituril In host-guest chemistry, cucurbiturils are macrocyclic molecules made of glycoluril () monomers linked by methylene bridges (). The oxygen atoms are located along the edges of the band and are tilted inwards, forming a partly enclosed cavity ( ...

s. He was a fit and keen outdoors person but his health declined from 1922 and he retired in 1924. He died during a typhoid outbreak in 1926. Behrend married Elizabeth Tischendorf in 1886 and they had a son and three daughters, one of whom was the photographer Katharina Eleonore Behrend (1888–1973).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behrend, Robert 20th-century German chemists 1856 births 1926 deaths 19th-century German chemists Scientists from Hamburg