science · 28 March 1925 · 100 years ago
death
Died 28 Mar 1925 at age 85 (born 20 Apr 1839).
German organic chemist who established in 1874 how to determine the positions of the substituents on di- and tri-substituted isomers of the benzene ring by counting product or source isomers (five years before the van't Hoff-Le Bel hypothesis of tetrahedral carbon.) Because the 1,2-disubstituted isomer gives two products; the 1,3 gives three; and the 1,4 gives only one, both starting compounds and products can be identified. This identifies both starting materials and products. From 1864-67, Korner worked directly with August Kekulé (who realized the ring structure of benzene). The 126 aromatic compounds he prepared included pyridine (1869) and asparagine (1887, with Angelo Menozzi). He died by suicide.
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