Sergey Nikolaevich Reformatsky (russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Реформа́тский) (April 1, 1860 – July 28, 1934) was a Russian

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 ...

Life

He was born as a son of a preacher in Borisoglebskoe, near Ivanovo. He studied at the

University of Kazan Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

under Alexander Mikhailovich Zaitsev until 1882. He went to Germany for further studies. He joined

Victor Meyer Viktor Meyer (8 September 18488 August 1897) was a German chemist and significant contributor to both organic and inorganic chemistry. He is best known for inventing an apparatus for determining vapour densities, the Viktor Meyer apparatus, and f ...

at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

and

Wilhelm Ostwald Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (; 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhen ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

and finally getting his Ph.D in 1891. The following year he was appointed professor at the

University of Kyiv Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

where he stayed the rest of his life.

Work

In 1887 discovered the

Reformatsky reaction The Reformatsky reaction (sometimes misspelled Reformatskii reaction) is an organic reaction which condenses aldehydes or ketones with α-halo esters using metallic zinc to form β-hydroxy-esters: The organozinc reagent, also called a 'Reforma ...

, during which a

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

organic compound is the key component. The use of zinc in organic reactions was common at that time, but it was subsequently replaced by the more convenient magnesium. This was not possible for the reaction of α-chloro acids with ketones, because the magnesium based Grignard reagents are more reactive and lead to other products. This made the Reformatsky reaction a convenient way for the synthesis of β-hydroxy acids which were difficult to obtain with other methods.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reformatskii, Sergei Nikolaevich 1860 births 1934 deaths Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Russian chemists Soviet chemists 20th-century chemists Ukrainian chemists Russian inventors Reformatsky Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences