Liebermann, Carl

Liebermann, Carl. "Emil Jacobsen." Berichte derDeutschen Chemischen Gesell-schaft 44 (1911) 549-50. 

Grdbe (or Groebe), Carl (1841—1927). A German org chemist who established the constitution of naphthalene, anthracene and phthalic acid, etc. Co-synthesized with Carl Liebermann (1842-1914) alizarine Ref Hackb s Diet (1944), 386-R(Graebe) ... 

The most important dyestuff in the madder root is alizarin. In the plant it occurs as a glycoside, bonded to glucose and xylose (ruberythric acid or alizarin-2-O-/1-primeveroside). The structure was elucidated in 1868 by Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann (two students of Adolf von Baeyer) at the Berliner Gewerbe-akademie (Berlin Trade Academy). 

Production of dyestuffs initially followed empirical methods, but academic research, especially that of August Wilhelm v. Hofmann, Adolf v.Baeyer, Carl Graebe, Carl Liebermann, Emil Fischer and Heinrich Caro established the scientific bases which gave a powerful impetus to the German dyestuffs industry. Already by 1880, the German share in world dyestuffs production had reached one-half and in 1900 it exceeded 80%. 

Anthracene was first discovered in coal tar by Jean B.A. Dumas and Auguste Laurent in 1832. The importance of anthracene for industrial aromatic chemistry began with the synthesis of the dyestuff alizarin by Carl Graebe and Carl Th. Liebermann, as well as by William H. Perkin in 1868, replacing the natural dye produced from madder. Anthraquinone dyestuffs have remained the most important class of dyes, alongside azo-dyes, since the beginning of the chemistry of synthetic dyestuffs. 

Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann in Berlin find that the natural product alizarin is an anthraquinone derivative of the aromatic hydrocarbon anthracene, establish the partial structure of alizarin and a route to its synthesis. This represents the first synthesis of a complex natural product in the laboratory. 

More famous was his work on the industrial synthesis of alizarin, from early 1869 to, probably, the end of 1871. In collaboration with Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann, the academic inventors of a low-yield laboratory synthesis of this... 

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