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Johann Georg Anton Geuther (23 April 1833 – 23 August 1889) was a German chemist. His work in organic and inorganic chemistry had an influence on the development of the concept of complex chemistry. Geuther spent most of his accademic career at the University of Jena where he also discovered the compound ethyl acetoacetate, a key compound for the discovery of tautomerism and an important compound for further chemical synthesis.

Life

Geuther was born in Neustadt bei Coburg and was educated in Neustad, Coburg and Saalfeld. Although his family favoured a education in the merchant business he started to studie chemistry at the University of Jena but changed to the University of Göttingen in 1853. He received his PhD in 1855 for a work on Oil shale with Friedrich Wöhler. In the following years he gradualy improved is possition in Götting until Geuther became professor in the University of Jena in 1860. In 1883 he married and lived until his death with wife, son and daugther in Jena. Geuther died of typhus in 1889 at the age of 57.

Work

Geuther started to work on inorganic topics, for example the electrolysis of chromic acid and sulfuric acid to determine the similarities of the two compounds. His research on the constitution of several cobalt amine complexes, for example hexamminecobalt(III) chloride, were later completed by Alfred Werner earning Werner a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Some of his organic research was connected to isomerism. The experimental work on the hydrolysis of 1,1-dichloroethane, which yielded glycol, and the chlorination of acetaldehyde giving 1,2-dichloroethane gave a good starting point for the development of the theory of the constitution of compounds with the same chemical formula, but different bond structur.

Geuther is best known for his discovery of ethyl acetoacetate. Although he discovered the compound in 1863 it took two years until he published his results in a peer reviewed journal. The experimental work of him and others yielded puzzling results and resulted in sometimes hard discussions on the nature ethyl acetoacetate. The structure proposed by Edward Frankland und Duppa showed a keto group (C=O), while Geuther was sure of the presence of a acidic OH group. It was long after the death of Geuther before Ludwig Knorr, Geuthers successor at the University of Jena, solved the riddle proving both sides right. The true nature of ethyl acetoacetate was a tautomeric equilibrium between the both suggested structures. The Keto-enol tautomerism strongly depends on the solvent used for the experiments. Geuther died well before the construction of his new planed laboratory building in Jena started, some of the work of Geuther was finished by his successor in Jena Ludwig Knorr.

References

1. ^ Duisberg, Carl; Hess, Kurt (1930). "Anton Geuther Sen Leben und seine Arbeiten von Carl Duisberg und Kurt Hess". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft (A and B Series). 63: A145. doi:10.1002/cber.19300630881.
2. ^ Strahlmann, Berend (1964), "Geuther, Georg Anton", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 6, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 353–354

• 1833 births
• 1889 deaths
• German chemists
• University of Jena faculty