FRIEDRICH WÖHLER: BIOGRAPHY, EXPERIMENTS, CONTRIBUTIONS, WORKS - ARTE - 2025

Friedrich Wöhler (1800-1882) was a professor and doctor of German origin who stood out as one of the pioneers when it came to studying organic chemistry. He is best known for producing urea in a laboratory, contradicting the doctrine that was on the rise at the time, which was vitalism.

The influence of Wöhler's works and contributions spanned different fields of chemistry. Among his achievements was that he managed to produce aluminum, beryllium and yttrium. He also worked on research on silicon and its compounds, and analyzed the components of meteoric rocks.

Friedrich Wöhler in the 1950s of the 19th century. Source: http://portrait.kaar.at/, via Wikimedia Commons.

On the other hand, the German's work and research almost always had the help of another famous German chemist, Justus Liebig.

Biography

Friedrich Wöhler was born on July 31, 1800, in a small place called Eschersheim, today part of the Frankfurt district.

He went to school in Frankfurt from a young age and it was there that he showed an interest in mineralogy, as well as chemistry. In fact, in his school years he was already conducting his own experiments.

Studies

Later, Wöhler tried to go even deeper and specialize in chemistry, but in those days it was an area that was not yet offered in universities. That is why in 1821 he decided to study medicine in Marburg and Heidelberg.

During this stage he was a student of the chemist Leopold Gmelin. Two years later, in 1823, Wöhler completed his studies with a doctorate. Gmelin encouraged him to pursue his idea of ​​focusing on chemistry and accepted an invitation from the most famous chemist of the day, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, to go to Stockholm.

Between 1823 and 1824 Wöhler worked almost daily as a student of Berzelius in his laboratory. During that time, Wöhler learned the systematic work that was necessary for the analysis of different components. He started with mineral analysis and before long had a margin of error of just 1 to 2 percent.

After his time with Berzelius, he returned to Germany and began teaching in Berlin. He began to work on different experiments and made his first contributions in the area. In addition, he met Justus Von Liebig in 1830, with whom he worked over the years and with whom he published some works.

In 1831 he went on to teach chemistry and pharmacy at the University of Göttingen, where he worked until his death in 1882. He also served as director of chemical laboratories and was the general inspector of pharmacies in Göttingen.

Personal life

Wöhler was the only child of August Anton Wöhler and Anna Katharina Wöhler. His father was a well-known veterinarian, agronomist, and teacher.

He was married twice. His first marriage was in 1828 and it was with his cousin Franziska Wöhler. The union came to an end after four years after his death, although they had two children. In 1832, the same year as his first wife's death, Wöhler remarried, this time to Julie Pfeiffer, the daughter of a banker, and with her he had four daughters.

Friedrich Wöhler died on September 23, 1882, at the age of 82 and after spending three days ill with dysentery. He was buried in the cemetery of the city of Göttingen.

Experiments

Wöhler's first experiments were done when he was still very young. As a child he was a great mineral collector and at 18 years old his interest focused on chemistry.

Several letters to a friend of his school, Hermann von Meyer, related different experiments conducted during his first years of life and that were carried out in the room of his house in Frankfurt.

The preparation of oxygen, the extraction of phosphorus and the isolation of potassium were the first tests of a young Wöhler.

Throughout his career he focused on experiments in the field of chemical physics, on the analysis of organic and inorganic chemistry. It was also developed in the field of physiological chemistry, which studies the chemistry of the organs and tissues of the human body, as well as the different processes at the physiological level that are linked to life.

Humphry Davy was the first scientist who tried to isolate aluminum, which is a metal that represents one of the elements with the greatest presence in the earth's crust. Davy tried his experiment in 1808 with electrolysis. Hans Christian Oersted also tried it and Wöhler tried to recreate Oersted's experiment, until he used pure potassium, heated with ammonium chloride. That was when it was able to produce aluminum.

This same experiment using chloride served Wöhler in his attempts to obtain beryllium, in the form of a dark metallic powder, and yttrium a few years later, in 1828.

The most important discovery

In 1828, Wöhler told one of his mentors, Berzelius, that he had discovered how to make urea in the laboratory, without using a living kidney. Urea is a substance that is made up of elements such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. In humans, urea is produced in the kidneys and is expelled through the urine.

The experiment to make urea was born from a test that the German did in which he actually sought to form ammonium cyanate.

The mechanism he used to create urea occurred in his Berlin laboratory. Wöhler was boiling ammonium cyanate and waiting for it to crystallize. What happened was that he obtained colorless crystals that did not have any of the characteristics of cyanates.

This was his most important experiment and it was the one that made him famous worldwide, since he achieved the production of urea in a laboratory and not in a living body. He also did it using an inorganic source such as ammonium cyanate.

Contributions to science and discoveries

Wöhler is considered the pioneer of organic chemistry, but his contributions span various fields of chemistry. With the synthesis of urea he denied the ideas of vitalism, but he was also one of those responsible for discovering beryllium, silicon and silicon nitride.

Together with Justus Liebig, he gained great international fame after the publication of a work on almond oil, an experiment in which the doctrine of compound radicals was based.

His success with the creation of urea allowed him to refute the doctrine that dominated at that time: vitalism, which was born at the end of the 18th century. This theory was created by Paul Joseph Barthez and was especially supported by physicians. Even Berzelius, one of Wöhler's mentors at the time, was a follower of vitalism.

This theory posited that organic matter, like urea, only had one way of being produced, and this was through living beings. When Wöhler discovered that this was not true, he wrote to Berzelius to let him know of his discovery.

Thus it was that in 1828 vitalism lost strength and the doctrine of organic chemistry was born. A doctrine that today is the one that allows the production of medicines, fuels and even flavorings and perfumes.

This discovery was and is considered one of the most relevant events in the history of chemistry. Many scientists believe that without their input the area of ​​chemistry would be very different today.

Detractors

In some circles it is known as "Wöhler myth" to the belief that the German put an end to vitalism, some scholars even claimed that this doctrine was already in decline before the German's experiments. Others claim that the end of vitalism occurred in stages.

Contributions in teaching

By the end of his career Wöhler was one of the most revered teachers in Germany. He introduced a new way of imparting science education, and this methodology became the basis of modern education.

Wöhler required all of his students to complete labs in the laboratory, where students were tasked with conducting their own experiments.

This method represented an innovation at the pedagogical level that was quickly adopted in Germany and in other parts of the world.

The German had many pupils throughout his career. The number of students under his supervision was so great that twice, in 1842 and 1860, he needed to expand his laboratories to accommodate a larger number of students.

Plays

Throughout his life Friedrich Wöhler wrote several books on organic and inorganic chemistry. According to the Royal Society's Catalog, there are more than 276 works that are authored by Wöhler. In addition, there are 43 other jobs in which the German collaborated with someone.

He published studies with Gmelin and was the translator of Berzelius's works into German. Together with Henri Sainte-Claire Deville he made two publications on the components of silicon and another three on boron. He was the one with whom he most collaborated with Liebig, in more than 20 publications.

However, the number of works could be higher. Wöhler did not think it was right to add his name to the work his students did under his supervision.

Most of his studies were published in Annales de Chimie et de physique, a science journal that was founded in Paris, France, in 1789.

References

1. Friedrich Wöhler (1800-1882). Recovered from issx.org
2. Friedrich Wöhler. (2019).Recovered from chemie.de
3. Friedrich Wöhler in Chemie. (2010).Recovered from lernhelfer.de
4. Joy, C. (1880). Friedrich Wöhler - Biographical Sketch of Frederick Wöhler (1880). Recovered from todayinsci.com
5. Rocke, A. (2019). Friedrich Wöhler - German chemist. Recovered from britannica.com