August Wilhelm von HofmannDied 2 May 1892 at age 74 (born 8 Apr 1818). German chemist whose research on aniline, with that of his former student Sir William Henry Perkin, helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry. He was the first to prepare rosaniline and its derivatives and researched many other compounds, including the discovery formaldehyde. In the field of organic chemistry, Hofmann is best known for his studies of the organic derivatives of ammonia and phosphine and for his subsequent discovery of the Hofmann degradation reaction. He also developed the Hofmann method of finding the vapor densities, and from these the molecular weights, of liquids. He also helped to popularize the concept of valence (the word comes from his term quantivalence). He founded the German Chemical Society. |
