Adolphe Wurtz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 26 November 1817 Wolfisheim, near Strasbourg, France |
| Died | 10 May 1884 (aged 66) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | University of Strasbourg |
| Known for | Wurtz reaction |
| Awards | Faraday Lectureship Prize (1879) Copley Medal (1881) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Doctoral advisor | Amédée Cailliot |
| Other academic advisors | Justus von Liebig |
| Doctoral students | Charles Friedel Armand Gautier |
| Other notable students | Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Alexander Zaytsev |
Charles Adolphe Wurtz (French: [vyʁts]; 26 November 1817 – 10 May 1884) was an Alsatian French chemist. He is best remembered for his decades-long advocacy for the atomic theory and for ideas about the structures of chemical compounds, against the skeptical opinions of chemists such as Marcellin Berthelot and Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville. He is well known by organic chemists for the Wurtz reaction, to form carbon-carbon bonds by reacting alkyl halides with sodium, and for his discoveries of ethylamine, ethylene glycol, and the aldol reaction. Wurtz was also an influential writer and educator.