Erich Clar

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Erich Clar (23 August 1902 in Hřensko – 27 March 1987 in Estepona) was an Austrian organic chemist who studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon chemistry. He is considered as the father of that field. [1] In 1941, he authored "Aromatische Kohlenwasserstoffe" (Springer-Verlag) and in 1964 the greatly expanded two-volume Polycyclic Hydrocarbons, which described the syntheses, properties, and UV-visible absorption spectra of hundreds of PAHs. He discovered the Clar reaction of the cyclic ketone perinaphthenone to form dibenzo[cd,lm]perylene in a 400 C melt of zinc dust, zinc (II) chloride, and sodium chloride. [2] He created the Sextet Theory, now eponymously called Clar's rule , to describe the behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon isomers. This was described in his book The Aromatic Sextet. He was awarded the August Kekulé Medal by the Chemical Society of the GDR in 1965, [3] the highest award given by that society to foreign scientists, [4] and the first Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Research Award of the International Symposium on Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in 1987. [5]

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24
H
12
. It is a yellow material that dissolves in common solvents including benzene, toluene, and dichloromethane. Its solutions emit blue light fluorescence under UV light. It has been used as a solvent probe, similar to pyrene.

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References

  1. "Dr. Erich (Eric) Clar" . Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  2. German patents 551 447 (1930), 553 000 (1930), and 549 206 (1930) issued I. G. Farbenindustrie with E. Clar as inventor
  3. "High award for Glasgow scientist". The Glasgow Herald. October 29, 1965. p. 8. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  4. "New titular professors at Glasgow". The Glasgow Herald. June 29, 1966. p. 5. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  5. "ISPAC Awards". Archived from the original on 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2014-01-20.