Wallach, Otto

WALLACH, OTTO (1847-1931). German chemist who received the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1910 for recognition of his services to organic chemistry and the chemical industry by his pioneer work tn the field of alic.yclic compounds. His mentors were Hofmann and Wahler, and he worked at the University of Bonn under Kekule. He studied pharmacy and did work on terpenes. camphors, and essential oils. This was followed by research in aromatic oils, perfumes, and spices. His research of terpenes revealed their significance in sex hormones and vitamins. Ethereal oils and industrial uses were made possible by his work. 

Wallach, Otto (1847-1931) German chemist who studied volatile oils and, from this work, established and named the terpene class of compounds. He showed that the terpenes consisted of a variable number of five-carbon units, each of which was called an isoprene unit. He was awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in chemistry. 

The German chemist Otto Wallach (Nobel Prize m chemistry 1910) determined the structures of many terpenes and is credited with setting forth the isoprene rule ter penes are repeating assemblies of isoprene units normally joined head to tail... 

Otto Wallach pioneering work in the field of alicyclic compounds... 

WaUach, O. Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1892, 272, 99. Otto Wallach (1847—1931), bom in Konigsberg, Prussia, studied under Wohler and Hofmann. He was the director of the Chemical Institute at Gottingen from 1889 to 1915. His book Terpene und Kampfer served as the foundation for future work in terpene chemistry. Wallach was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1910 for his work on alicyclic compounds. Moore, M. L. Org. React. 1948, 5, 301. (Review). 

Otto Wallach Germany pioneering work with ahcyclic compounds... 

In 1887, German chemist Otto Wallach determined the structures of several terpenes and discovered that all of them are formally composed of two or more five-carbon units of isoprene (2-methylbuta-l,3-diene). The isoprene unit maintains its isopentyl structure in a terpene, usually with modification of the isoprene double bonds. 

Butyl nitrite has always been prepared by the action of nitrous acid on butyl alcohol. The method here described is a modification of that of Wallach and Otto for ethyl nitrite and has been published recently. ... 

Nor is the confusion limited to botanical terms. The multitude of trivial chemical names in this field is again testimony to the conservatism of scientists. The classic example of how meaningless a term can become is perhaps that of the camphors, of which there must once have been at least 15— bergamot camphor, thyme camphor, cardamom camphor, and so on. Berzelius protested against this indiscriminate use in the 182O s Otto Wallach, 70 years later, persuaded his coworkers to drop the term. (It persists, however, in the trade.) The continued use of such words as limonene and citral, when more descriptive and comprehensible terms are at hand, is justified only because tradition is behind it. 

That same year the first laboratory sample of synthetic rubber was developed. Otto Wallach in 1887 and William A. Tilden in 1892 confirmed this synthesis and showed that this synthetic elastomer reacted with sulfur in the same way as ordinary rubber to form a tough, elastic, insoluble product. 

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