Horst Prinzbach (20 July 1931 in

Haslach im Kinzigtal Haslach im Kinzigtal (, ; ) is a small city in the Black Forest in the district Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany. In 2015, it comprised a population of 6,893 inhabitants. Haslach is a member of the " Deutsche Fachwerkstr ...

– 18 September 2012 in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

) was a German chemist and professor emeritus. Prinzbach studied chemistry at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

and received his PhD under Arthur Lüttringhaus. He joined

William von Eggers Doering William von Eggers Doering (June 22, 1917 – January 3, 2011) was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. Before Harvard, he taught at Columbia (1942–1952) and Yale (1952–1968). Doering was born in Fort Worth, Texas ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

for postdoctoral work. In 1962 he completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

at Freiburg with a dissertation on sesquifulvalenes. In 1965 he became a professor of

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

at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

, Switzerland, and in 1969 he became a full professor in organic chemistry at Freiburg.

Main research activities

Of his many research interests in organic chemistry, including

photochemistry Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of light. Generally, this term is used to describe a chemical reaction caused by absorption of ultraviolet (wavelength from 100 to 400 Nanometre, nm), visible ligh ...

with unusual chromophores, synthesis of new carba-/hetera cages, radical cations, dications, total synthesis of aminoglycosid antibiotics, and enzymes, Prinzbach was probably best known for the

pagodane Pagodane is an organic compound with formula whose carbon skeleton was said to resemble a pagoda, hence the name. It is a polycyclic hydrocarbon whose molecule has the ''D''2''h'' point symmetry group. The compound is a highly crystalline solid ...

route towards

dodecahedrane Dodecahedrane is a chemical compound, a hydrocarbon with formula , whose carbon atoms are arranged as the vertices (corners) of a regular dodecahedron. Each carbon is bound to three neighbouring carbon atoms and to a hydrogen atom. This compound ...

. In the course of his research, the phenomenon of σ-bishomoaromaticity was discovered as an extreme case of chemical bonding. The final landmark the development of dodecahedrane chemistry over many years was the preparation and characterisation of

C20 fullerene C, or c, is the third letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''cee'' (pronounced ), plural ''cees''. History "C" ...

in the gas phase based on bromination-elimination reactions of dodecahedrane.

σ-Bishomoaromaticity

σ-Bishomoaromaticity is an extreme case of the chemical bond and the

aromaticity In organic chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property describing the way in which a conjugated ring of unsaturated bonds, lone pairs, or empty orbitals exhibits a stabilization stronger than would be expected from conjugation alone. The e ...

. It was found by the Prinzbach when they synthesized dodecahedrane via the

Pagodane Pagodane is an organic compound with formula whose carbon skeleton was said to resemble a pagoda, hence the name. It is a polycyclic hydrocarbon whose molecule has the ''D''2''h'' point symmetry group. The compound is a highly crystalline solid ...

routeR. Herges, P. v. R. Schleyer, M. Schindler, W.-D. Fessner. ''Tetramethylene dications (CH₂)₄²⁺: are the norbornadiene dication, the pagodane dication, and related systems aromatic?'' J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113(10), 3649, .

Honors

* Adolf-von-Baeyer-Denkmünze (''

Adolf von Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo dye, indigo and developed a Von Baeyer nomenclature, nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended a ...

Medal'') of the German Chemical Society

Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker The German Chemical Society () is a learned society and professional association founded in 1949 to represent the interests of German chemists in local, national and international contexts. GDCh "brings together people working in chemistry and th ...

(1989)

References

External links

Homepage of Horst Prinzbach at Universität of Freiburg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prinzbach, Horst 1931 births 2012 deaths People from Haslach im Kinzigtal People from the Republic of Baden 20th-century German chemists Academic staff of the University of Freiburg