Barbier, Philippe

Shortly before the successM preparation of organomag-nesium compounds by Victor Grignard, his mentor, Philippe Barbier, had discovered that reaction of an aldehyde or ketone and an alkyl hahde in the presence of magnesium metal led to formation of an alcohol, essentially as in the Grignard reaction . The use of the older technique, referred to as the Barbier method or as the in situ reaction, holds advantages in some cases. ... 

One of the great and important steps in the history of modern chemistry was made by Philippe Barbier [1] when, in 1899, he started his work in the area of organomagnesium chemistry. In doing so he discovered the one-step reaction that was to be named after him the Barbier Reaction. 

In 1898, Philippe Barbier (1848-1922) modified SaytzefFs alcohol synthesis by replacing zinc with the more reactive magnesium 7] (Eq. (2.5)). His student Victor Grignard (1871-1935) further developed this substitution [8] and was awarded the Nobel Prize for the same in 1912 ... 

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