Gomberg, Moses

Gomberg, Moses. "Report on the Preparation of Dichloro-ethylsulfide", Record Group 175, National Archives. 

Free Radicals and Moses Gomberg s Contribution. Pure and Applied Chem., 15, 1-13 (1967) also in Free Radicals in Solution, Butterworth1s, London, 1967, pp. 1-13. Condensed version in Chem. Engr. News, 44, no. 41, 90-92 (Oct. 3, 1966). 

The proposal by Moses Gomberg in 1900 of the formation of the stable and persistent free radical triphenylmethyl was a major landmark that set the stage for the rapid development of free radical chemistry in the 20th Century. Prior to Gomberg s proposal, the theory of free radicals had risen to prominence and then fallen into disrepute, but his work immediately attracted the attention of the world chemical community, and led to the ultimate acceptance of this once controversial concept. 

The existence of a carbon radical was first proposed by Moses Gomberg in 1900. Gomberg was trying to prepare hexaphenylethane from triphenylmethyl chloride according to the following equation ... 

Moses Gomberg and the triphenylmethyl radical 3 Overview of free radicals in the 20th Century 3... 

Polyarylmethyl polyradicals are derived from triphenylmethyl, the first organic free radical discovered by Moses Gomberg in 1900 (Fig. 2).27,28 At that time, the... 

Free radicals, or radicals, are defined as atomic or molecular species with unpaired electrons on an otherwise open shell configuration. Because a radical has a half-filled orbital, it easily sucks up an electron from another bond, hence exhibiting highly reactive properties and therefore likely to take part in chemical reactions. The first organic free radical is the triphenylmethyl radical, which was identified by Moses Gomberg in 1900 [34], Radicals play an important role in chemical processes such as combustion, atmospheric chemistry, polymerisation, plasma chemistry, biochemistry, etc. [35],... 

The advent of organic radical chemistry is generally attributed to the discovery of the triphenyl methyl (trityl) radical by Moses Gomberg in 1900.2 This discovery was aided in part by its accidental exposure to air and subsequent trapping by oxygen to form the peroxide, as shown in Equation 10.1 ... 

Figure 1. National Historic Landmark commemorating tlie isolation and discovery of the first free radical by Moses Gomberg...

In 1896 Ipatieff spent a year in Germany in the laboratory of the great Adolph von Baeyer. In the laboratory he made friends with Moses Gomberg, the discoverer of stable free radicals (University of Michigan) and Richard Wilstater, later recipient of a Nobel Prize. The three of them met in Chicago in 1933... 

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