World celebrities come from Moldova: Nikolai Zelinsky - the chemist who invented the gas mask - Locals. Zelinsky Nikolai - biography, facts from life, photographs, background information Academician Zelinsky biography personal life

Nikolai Zelinsky, a famous Russian scientist in the field of organic chemistry, who created an entire scientific school, was born in Tiraspol on February 6, 1861.

Many people know that Zelinsky, who stood at the origins of petrochemistry, the founder of organic catalysis, became the “father” of the first gas mask based on a carbon filter, which appeared at the right time - in the midst of World War I. But not everyone knows that he deliberately did not patent a product that saves millions of lives. He considered it unworthy to profit from something that could save a person from death.

Childhood

At the age of 10, little Kolya entered the Tiraspol district school, where he completed preparatory courses for the gymnasium, designed for two years, ahead of schedule. Already at the age of eleven, the smart, talented boy entered the second grade of the Odessa classical Richelieu school. After graduating in 1880, Nikolai Zelinsky there, in Odessa, became a student at the Novorossiysk University in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, with the emphasis in teaching being on natural sciences.

After graduating from high school in 1884, he decided to delve deeper into his studies, and after 4 years he passed the master’s exam with flying colors, a year later he graduated, and in 1891 he also defended his doctoral dissertation.

From 1893 to 1953, the biography of Nikolai Zelinsky was written within the walls of Moscow University, where he worked with a break of six years - from 1911 to 1917, during which time he was absent from the university. It was then that, in protest, he left the university along with a group of scientists who did not agree with the policies of the reactionary Casso, the Minister of Education of Tsarist Russia.

In St. Petersburg, Zelinsky headed the Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance and headed the department of the Polytechnic Institute.

In 1935, the biography of Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky was marked by an important event. He took an active part in organizing the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In this educational institution, he later headed several laboratories. Since 1953, this institute has been named after Nikolai Zelinsky.

Proceedings

The scientist has written about 40 works, the main of which are devoted to the catalysis of organic substances and the chemistry of hydrocarbons. He also has works on the chemistry of amino acids and electrical conductivity.

Scientific activity

The man devoted his entire life to chemistry. In the summer of 1891, Nikolai Zelinsky took part in a scientific expedition, the purpose of which was to survey the waters of the Black Sea. As a result, he proved that hydrogen sulfide in water is of bacterial origin.

According to Zelinsky, oil is also of organic origin. During the research, the scientist tried to prove this. From 1895 to 1907, Nikolai Zelinsky became the first to synthesize a number of standard hydrocarbons for the study of petroleum fractions. Already in 1911, he conducted experiments that formed the basis of an industrial method for producing aromatic hydrocarbons from oil, which are used in the production of plastics and medicines, pesticides and dyes.

He developed a new method for producing gasoline - by cracking diesel oil and petroleum with the participation of aluminum chloride and bromide; this method acquired an industrial scale and played an important role in providing our country with gasoline. When creating benzene, Zelinsky first proposed using activated carbon as a catalyst.

But this is not what truly made this great man famous, because he is not called the savior of human lives for nothing. The key work in the biography of Nikolai Zelinsky was the creation of a gas mask in 1915 based on a carbon filter, which was adopted by the armies of the Russians and our allies in the period from 1914 to 1918 during the First World War.

Teacher

Nikolai Dmitrievich is the founder of a large school of scientists, whose works significantly influenced the development of the chemical field of our country. Academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences L.F. Vereshchagin and A.A. Balandin, K.A. Kocheshkov and B.A. Kazansky, as well as Nesmeyanov and Nametkin made an invaluable contribution to Russian science. Corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences of the Union K. P. Lavrovsky, N. A. Izgaryshev, B. M. Mikhailov and many other professors also distinguished themselves.

The All-Union Chemical Society named after Mendeleev was created with the active participation of Nikolai Zelinsky, who since 1941 acquired the status of an honorary member of this organization.

Since 1921, Nikolai Dmitrievich was a member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists, and in 1935 he was assigned to head it.

Heritage

Zelinsky's house in Tiraspol, where he spent his childhood, is today a museum of the great scientist. School No. 6, where the future one studied today, is a humanities and mathematics gymnasium, on the facade of which there is a memorial plaque. The monument to the great Russian scientist stands in front of the building of the educational institution.

A street in Tiraspol is named after Zelinsky. Nikolai Dmitrievich left a truly enormous legacy, but in life he was a very modest person, as everyone who knew him said, including his son. In Chisinau, a street in the Botanica district is named after the academician. Nikolai Zelinsky Street in Tyumen with an index of 625016 and 20 houses was renovated in 2017 according to the plans of the city authorities.

Personal

Nikolai Zelinsky was married three times. He lived with his first wife Raisa, who died in 1906, for 25 years. The second wife of the scientist Evgeny Kuzmin-Karavaev was a pianist, their marriage also lasted 25 years. The third wife, Nina Evgenievna Zhukovskaya-God, was an artist, and Nikolai Zelinsky also lived with her for a long time - 20 years.

Nikolai Dmitrievich has three children: sons Andrei and Nikolai and daughter Raisa Zelinskaya-Plate, who lived from 1910 to 2001.

Awards

In 1924, the Russian scientist was awarded the A.M. Butlerov Prize.

The Lenin Prize was awarded by the National Economy Committee in 1934. Chemist Nikolai Zelinsky became a laureate in 1942, as well as in 1946 and 1948. He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor in 1945.

Nikolai Dmitrievich was awarded 4 orders of V.I. Lenin, was the owner of 2 orders of the Red Banner of Labor and medals in honor of the 800th anniversary of the capital and “For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War.”

War

Certain facts in the short biography of Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky evoke a feeling of pride in his compatriot. During the First World War, the Germans launched a global chemical war that threatened to take on a planetary scale.

The first use of chemical weapons was recorded on April 22, 1915. Early in the morning, near Ypres, Belgium, chlorine was used against Anglo-French troops preparing to attack. Despite the fact that it is not a chemical warfare agent, the losses of the French First Army were significant. After all, there is no escape from the caustic gas that provokes a terrible choking cough; it can penetrate into any crevice. About five thousand soldiers and officers died right in their positions, and twice as many more became permanently crippled and disabled with loss of combat capability.

A month later, Russian troops were exposed to a gas attack. This happened near Warsaw in the Bolimov area. The Germans sprayed a front line 12 kilometers long with 264 tons of chlorine. There were more than a thousand people killed; there is information about the victims that their number was close to 9 thousand.

Back in the 19th century, the first protective masks were invented, which were a material impregnated with a special composition. Both French and English gas masks showed their ineffectiveness during the war, but they protected well from mosquitoes.

It was necessary to look for a remedy against the gas. Otherwise, the war was destined to end in favor of the German side.

An interesting fact is that during the First World War, thanks to the research of Nikolai Zelinsky, the Russian army managed to increase the yield of toluene, which was used to make explosives. Toluene is obtained from the processing of petroleum products.

Absorption of Poisons

But let's return to the beginning of the chemical war... Zelinsky understood that chlorine was the most harmless gas that the German enemy could use, and the worst was yet to come. It was as if he were staring at the water - soon dichlorodiethyl sulfide, the so-called “mustard gas” or “mustard gas,” was used in battle. Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky could not remain uninvolved; he sincerely wanted to help his homeland, to repay his duty as a true patriot. Moreover, the scientist himself became the first victim of this gas thirty years before this event.

How did he know this substance? In 1885, while on a business trip, he worked in the laboratory of the University of Göttingen and invented a new substance - the same dichlorodiethyl sulfide, which caused him severe burns, after which he spent a long time in the hospital.

Zelinsky considered it a mistake to create a chemical absorber for a certain substance - for another it may not work, so in order not to waste time on inventing a useless one, it is necessary to find a substance that would purify all the air, no matter what the composition of what was sprayed and what needs to be destroyed.

Saving coal

Zelinsky discovered such a substance, it turned out to be charcoal, all that remained was to understand how to increase its ability to absorb substances, in other words, how to activate it as much as possible.

He conducted many tests on himself. In the summer of 1915, poisons - chlorine and phosgene - were introduced into the St. Petersburg laboratory of the Ministry of Finance. Zelinsky wrapped 50 grams of crushed activated birch charcoal in a handkerchief and was able to stay in the poisoned room for several minutes with his eyes closed, pressing the handkerchief to his mouth and nose, and thus breathing.

Mask

The only example in the world of the very first gas mask equipped with a carbon filter is presented in the former Moscow apartment of Nikolai Zelinsky. His son, Andrei Nikolaevich, said that this device was offered to Nikolai Dmitrievich by an engineer from St. Petersburg named Kummant. The gas mask is a rubberized mask with glass glued into it.

In order to combat toxic substances on February 3, 1916, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief at his Headquarters near the city of Mogilev, obeying the personal order of Emperor Nicholas II, ordered tests of Russian and foreign samples of anti-chemical protection. In a special mobile laboratory, Sergei Stepanovich Stepanov, Nikolai Dmitrievich’s laboratory assistant, tested the Zelinsky-Kummant gas mask; he spent more than an hour in a closed room of a carriage filled with chlorine and phosgene. The Emperor awarded S.S. Stepanov the St. George Cross for his courage.

The protection turned out to be effective, and immediately after the tests the gas mask entered service with the Russian army. At the request of the allies, the Russian command handed over samples of the new development to them - the Entente countries were also saved. The product of the Russian nobleman Zelinsky became the property of the whole world. Between 1916 and 1917, more than eleven million copies of this truly effective device were produced in Russia.

Nikolai Dmitrievich did not patent the gas mask, considering it absolutely immoral to profit from objects that serve to save human lives.

Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky died in the summer of 1953 in the Russian capital and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky (1861-1953).

Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky was born on January 25 (February 6), 1861 in the district city of Tiraspol, Kherson province. The boy's parents died early from tuberculosis, and Nikolai remained in the care of his grandmother Maria Petrovna Vasilyeva. His first views, tastes, as well as spiritual qualities were formed under the beneficial influence of this wonderful Russian woman.

Nikolai studied at the Tiraspol district school for three years. In the spring of 1872 he graduated from college. It was necessary to think about further education, but Tiraspol did not have its own gymnasium. Among the educational institutions of the southern cities, the gymnasium in Odessa was famous. Nikolai went to study here. This gymnasium was a privileged educational institution, here students received the general education necessary to enter the university.

In 1880, Nikolai graduated from high school and entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University. Of all the subjects that Zelinsky studied in his first year, he was most interested in chemistry. Classes with students were conducted by P. G. Melikishvili, in whom Nikolai saw his older friend. He also lectured on organic chemistry, paying much attention to Butlerov’s theory of chemical structure.

Zelinsky asked Melikishvili to include him in the research group in order to independently carry out the synthesis. He synthesized alpha-methylamino-beta-hydroxybutyric acid. In May 1884, the work was published in the Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. In the same year, Nikolai received a university diploma and was left to work at the chemistry department.

According to the tradition that existed at that time, young Russian scientists were required to undergo internships in advanced Western European laboratories. Zelinsky was also sent as a faculty fellow to Germany. Taking into account the direction of scientific work at Novorossiysk University, the laboratories of I. Wislicenus in Leipzig and W. Meyer in Göttingen were chosen for the internship, where much attention was paid to issues of theoretical organic chemistry.

Meyer invited Nikolai to take part in work on the synthesis of thiophene derivatives. These studies subsequently became part of his dissertation work.

In 1888, the young scientist returned to Odessa. After passing the master's exam, he was enrolled as a private assistant professor at the university and began teaching a course in general chemistry for students in the mathematics department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Since 1890, he has been reading selected chapters of organic chemistry for senior students. At the same time, Zelinsky conducts extensive scientific work. He involves talented students in research activities, who became his faithful students and assistants. Under the leadership of N.D. Zelinsky, A.M. Bezredka, A.A. Bychikhin, S.G. Krapivin and other students who later became famous scientists did their first works.

During this period, Zelinsky continued the research begun in Germany. One after another, the scientist’s articles on thiophene derivatives were published. In 1889, he submitted his master's thesis "On the issue of isomerism in the thiophene series" for defense. In it, the theoretical concepts of organic chemistry were further developed.

The defense of his master's thesis took place in 1889. But Zelinsky’s thoughts were directed further. The scientist decided to study in more detail the phenomenon of stereoisomerism on a number of derivatives of saturated dibasic carboxylic acids, which, according to theory, should give stereoisomers. Zelinsky obtained derivatives of succinic, glutaric, adipic and pimelic acids using this method.

He concludes that “the phenomena of stereoisomerism among carbon compounds should be recognized as a fact that actually exists by those scientists who were doubtful and hostile to the possibility of the existence of isomers that are structurally identical. The theory of structure did not foresee such cases of isomerism... but as soon as the formulas of the structure were given stereometric meaning, how something that seemed incomprehensible took on a new and clear form, not in the least undermining the foundations of the theory of chemical structure, but, on the contrary, further developing and improving it.” The dissertation was brilliantly defended in 1891.

In the summer of 1891, Zelinsky received an unexpected invitation to take part in a deep-sea expedition to explore the Black Sea. During the expedition, he took pound samples from different depths at five different points in the Black Sea for analysis in order to find out the source of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. Zelinsky's analyzes convincingly showed that hydrogen sulfide in the sea is a product of the vital activity of special bacteria living on the bottom of the sea.

In the fall of 1893, Nikolai Dmitrievich began work at Moscow University. He headed the department of organic chemistry and at the same time became the head of the analytical and organic laboratories.

At Moscow University, Zelinsky's outstanding teaching abilities were fully demonstrated. Based on existing textbooks and his own rich experience, he created his original course in organic chemistry. Zelinsky read his lectures on this subject simply and clearly, accompanying them with numerous interesting and varied experiments. They helped students better remember and understand extensive material. Zelinsky's lectures were distinguished by their logical structure and skillful linking of modern theoretical views with experimental data.

Along with his extensive scientific and pedagogical activities at the university, Zelinsky devoted a lot of time to social work outside the university. He organized the department of organic chemistry at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, which reopened in 1900, and became its head. At the beginning of the century, at the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, Nikolai Dmitrievich equipped the Central Laboratory in Moscow, from which the Institute of Chemical Reagents and Highly Pure Chemical Substances subsequently grew. In 1908, he took an active part in the organization of the A. L. Shanyavsky People's University. Having joined the Russian Physical-Chemical Society back in 1887, Zelinsky made about one hundred and fifty reports at its meetings over fifty years. In 1924, for this pedagogical activity he was awarded a large prize named after. A. M. Butlerov.

Participation in the listed societies gave Zelinsky the opportunity to live a full-blooded social life and at the same time continue active experimental and theoretical work in the field of organic chemistry, to identify new synthesis paths and new patterns.

Zelinsky had at his disposal a small laboratory with twelve student workstations. In this laboratory, the scientist continued experimental studies that resulted from the synthesis methods he had previously used in his work on the preparation of substituted dibasic fatty acids and on the closure of heterocycles.

Now he decided to try to close the alicyclic ring and synthetically obtain the hydrocarbons contained in oil. Zelinsky managed to solve this problem brilliantly. He synthesized over twenty-five different cycloalkanes and studied their properties and their characteristic reactions using individual compounds.

Zelinsky's subsequent research was aimed at determining the chemical properties of hydrocarbons and developing synthetic methods for their production. They played a special role in the scientist’s subsequent many-year work on creating methods for oil refining and petrochemical synthesis. Zelinsky's particular attention was attracted to cyclic naphthenic hydrocarbons.

One by one, cycloalkanes were synthesized in Zelinsky's laboratory. Carbon chains acquired more and more bizarre shapes: three-membered cycles were followed by four-membered, five-membered and with a large number of carbon atoms. In 1905, at a meeting of the chemistry department of the Russian Physical-Chemical Society, Nikolai Dmitrievich reported on the production of methylcycloheptane, and in 1906 - propylcycloheptane. Another year passes, and the scientist reports the synthesis of a nine-membered cycle. Two years later, cycles of unprecedented sizes were obtained - twenty and forty carbon atoms in the ring.

Work on the synthesis of cyclic hydrocarbons and their derivatives became increasingly widespread. Zelinsky raises the question of expanding the laboratory with the university leadership. Following the example of his predecessor V.V. Markovnikov, he takes an active part in the design and then in the construction of a new building, which was completed in 1905.

During the events of 1904-1905, Zelinsky openly supported the revolutionary movement of student youth. When police sent to quell student unrest burst into the classroom and attacked students, Zelinsky spoke out in defense of the students.

In 1911, the tsarist government again tried to intervene in the life of Moscow University. As a sign of protest, Zelinsky, together with a group of progressive professors, left the university and moved to St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, he failed to get a position as a professor at a higher educational institution. He was forced to work in a primitively equipped laboratory of the Ministry of Finance, deprived of his devoted employees. And yet, even in such conditions, he managed to complete a lot of significant work.

The results of research on catalysis carried out by Zelinsky in the years before the First World War deservedly put him among the outstanding scientists working in the field of organic chemistry.

Zelinsky's contribution to the development of heterogeneous catalysis lies, first of all, in the fact that he used catalysts in finely divided form on carrier substances (asbestos, coal) and thus achieved a significant increase in their active surface.

In 1911, Zelinsky, while studying the dehydrogenation of six-membered rings, discovered an extremely interesting phenomenon - irreversible catalysis. At the beginning of work in this direction, Nikolai Dmitrievich called the noted phenomenon “highly mysterious.” But subsequent studies showed the generality of the described phenomenon for the entire class of compounds. This is how dehydrogenation catalysis was discovered - the catalytic transformations of saturated hydrocarbons, leading to the formation of unsaturated compounds due to the elimination of hydrogen, which became an independent branch of catalytic chemistry and the basis of the entire oil refining industry.

The scientist’s new discovery - hydrogenation catalysis is a catalytic reaction of the addition of hydrogen to unsaturated compounds. And finally, Zelinsky became a pioneer in the field of catalytic isomerization - the process of changing the structure of a compound in the presence of catalysts.

Zelinsky's multifaceted research on organic catalysis resulted in an independent branch of science and industry - biochemistry and petrochemistry.

Many years have passed since the publication of Zelinsky's works on organic catalysis, but they are still a model of experiment and scientific foresight. The improvement of experimental technology today has forced us to reconsider a number of provisions put forward by Zelinsky, but, nevertheless, organic catalysis as a scientific direction is still associated with the name of a remarkable scientist.

Zelinsky was working in St. Petersburg when the First World War broke out. Germany was the first to use chemical weapons. When this crime became known, Zelinsky developed a special filter that protects people from high molecular weight chemical warfare agents. Despite significant opposition from the tsarist authorities and the direct hostility of corrupt officials, Zelinsky managed to save the lives of thousands of Russian soldiers with the help of the coal gas mask he invented.

In 1917, Nikolai Dmitrievich was able to return to Moscow University. During the difficult years of the Civil War in 1918-1919, Zelinsky developed a method for producing gasoline from diesel oil and fuel oil. Zelinsky's subsequent work was related to the production of fuel and oil refining. At the same time, he continued his research, begun earlier in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Zelinsky's scientific work was unusually diverse. He studied the occurrence of reactions under pressure, polymerization processes, rubber synthesis and catalytic processes for the conversion of hydrocarbons, dealt with practical issues of petrochemistry and technology for the absorption of gaseous toxic substances, and came to new conclusions about the nature of protein substances.

Zelinsky's contribution to the theory of the origin of oil was significant. He proved experimentally that organic substances of medium or high molecular weight at a relatively low temperature can be converted into a mixture of various hydrocarbons in the presence of aluminum chloride as a catalyst. Based on this, Zelinsky suggested that oil is formed in nature if organic substances come into contact with clays for a long time in the presence of microorganisms.

Based on the principles of organic catalysis, Zelinsky conducted studies of proteins and came to the logical conclusion that the hydrolysis of proteins during digestion is a catalytic process. Thus, he made an outstanding contribution to the study of the carriers of living matter - protein substances.

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, Zelinsky became one of the most famous professors at Moscow University. The number of students who attended Zelinsky's lectures constantly grew, and the laboratories and research departments he led expanded. Thus, after the Academy of Sciences moved from Leningrad to Moscow in 1934, Zelinsky did a great job of creating the Institute of Organic Chemistry within the Academy of Sciences system. Now this institute bears his name.

Zelinsky's working day was very tense. In the morning, he gave lectures, conducted laboratory classes with students, and gave numerous consultations to factory engineers and employees of the central administrations and people's commissariats. In the afternoon, Zelinsky could be seen at the laboratory table, conducting experiments or discussing the results with employees.

Nikolai Dmitrievich's interests outside of his scientific and social activities were distinguished by their extraordinary breadth and diversity. He deeply understood and appreciated literature, music, and theater. On his desk next to chemical journals lay volumes of Leo Tolstoy, Gogol, and Dostoevsky. His favorite composers were Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov. The scientist could often be seen in the theater, most often at the Moscow Art Theater.

Nikolai Dmitrievich knew how to quickly and correctly assess the actual depth and merits of his interlocutor. Towards the person he liked, he showed sincere, friendly disposition, sympathy, readiness for services and help. But despite the rudeness, immodesty and insincerity of his interlocutor, Zelinsky, although he never answered him sharply or insultingly, his restraint and silence made his interlocutor immediately feel that he was understood and appreciated according to his “merits.”

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, Zelinsky and a group of other leading scientists were evacuated to Northern Kazakhstan. In 1942, Nikolai Dmitrievich proposed a method for producing toluene based on benzene and methane. In September 1943, he returned to Moscow and began his many duties at the university and the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Despite his venerable age, the scientist continues to work actively. Research in the field of spirocyclanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, amino acid and protein chemistry - this is the range of his scientific interests in these years.

In the fall of 1952, Nikolai Dmitrievich’s health deteriorated sharply, and on July 31, 1953, he died.

At the age of 10, Nikolai Zelinsky entered the Tiraspol district school for 2-year courses to prepare for entering the gymnasium. Having completed them ahead of schedule at the age of 11, Nikolai entered the Odessa Classical Richelieu Gymnasium, in the 2nd grade. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1880, Nikolai Dmitreevich entered the Novorossiysk University in the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. In 1884 he graduated from Novorossiysk University (Odessa), passed the master's exam in 1888, and defended his master's (1889) and doctoral dissertations (1891) there. In 1893-1953 he was a professor at Moscow University, except for the period 1911-1917, when he left the university along with a group of scientists in protest against the reactionary policies of the Tsarist Minister of Public Education L. A. Kasso (during these years Zelinsky was in St. Petersburg the director of the Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance and head of department at the Polytechnic Institute). In 1935, he actively participated in the organization of the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he then led a number of laboratories; this institute has been named after him since 1953. Nikolai Zelinsky is buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Scientific activity

Zelinsky's scientific activity is very versatile: his work on the chemistry of thiophene and the stereochemistry of organic dibasic acids is widely known. In the summer of 1891, Zelinsky participated in an expedition to survey the waters of the Black Sea and Odessa estuaries on the gunboat Zaporozhets, where he was the first to prove that the hydrogen sulfide contained in the water was of bacterial origin. During his life and work in Odessa, Nikolai Dmitrievich wrote 40 scientific papers. His works also deal with electrical conductivity in non-aqueous solutions and the chemistry of amino acids, but his most important works relate to the chemistry of hydrocarbons and organic catalysis. In 1895-1907, he was the first to synthesize a number of cyclopentane and cyclohexane hydrocarbons, which served as standards for studying the chemical composition of petroleum fractions. Already in 1911 he carried out the smooth dehydrogenation of cyclohexane and its homologues into aromatic hydrocarbons in the presence of platinum and palladium catalysts; widely used this reaction to determine the content of cyclohexane hydrocarbons in gasoline and kerosene fractions of oils (1920-30), as well as as an industrial method for the production of aromatic hydrocarbons from oil. These studies of Zelinsky form the basis of modern processes of catalytic reforming of petroleum fractions. Subsequent research in this area led Zelinsky and his students to the discovery (1934) of the hydrogenolysis reaction of cyclopentane hydrocarbons, converting them into alkanes in the presence of platinized carbon and excess hydrogen.

In 1915, Zelinsky successfully used oxide catalysts in oil cracking, which led to a decrease in the process temperature and an increase in the yield of aromatic hydrocarbons. In 1918-19, Zelinsky developed a method for producing gasoline by cracking diesel oil and petroleum in the presence of aluminum chloride and bromide; the implementation of this method on an industrial scale played an important role in providing gasoline to the Soviet state. Zelinsky improved the reaction of the catalytic compaction of acetylene into benzene by proposing the use of activated carbon as a catalyst. In the 1930s studied in detail the reaction of disproportionation of cyclohexene (so-called irreversible catalysis), which he discovered back in 1911, in which cyclohexane and benzene are simultaneously formed. Zelinsky and his students also studied the dehydrogenation of paraffins and olefins in the presence of oxide catalysts.

Being a supporter of the theory of the organic origin of oil, Zelinsky conducted a number of studies to connect its genesis with sapropels, oil shale and other natural and synthetic organic substances.

Zelinsky and his students proved the intermediate formation of methylene radicals in many heterogeneous catalytic reactions: during the decomposition of cyclohexane, during the synthesis of hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and hydrogen on a cobalt catalyst, in the reactions discovered by him of hydrocondensation of olefins with carbon monoxide and hydropolymerization of olefins in the presence of small amounts of carbon monoxide .

A special place is occupied by Zelinsky’s work on adsorption and on the creation of a coal gas mask (1915), which was adopted for service during the First World War of 1914-18 in the Russian and allied armies.

Pedagogical activity

Zelinsky created a large school of scientists who made fundamental contributions to various fields of chemistry. Among his students: academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. A. Balandin, L. F. Vereshchagin, B. A. Kazansky, K. A. Kocheshkov, S. S. Nametkin, A. N. Nesmeyanov; Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences N. A. Izgaryshev, K. P. Lavrovsky, Yu. G. Mamedaliev, B. M. Mikhailov, A. V. Rakovsky, V. V. Chelintsev, N. I. Shuikin; Professor L. A. Chugaev, N. A. Shilov and others.

Zelinsky is one of the organizers of the All-Union Chemical Society named after. D. I. Mendeleev and since 1941 his honorary member; from 1921 an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists, and from 1935 - its president. Prize named after V. I. Lenin (1934); Stalin Prize (1942, 1946, 1948). Awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, 2 other orders, as well as medals.

Heritage in Moldova

In Tiraspol, in the house where Zelinsky spent his childhood, there is a memorial house-museum of the academician, and on the building of school No. 6 (now a humanitarian and mathematical gymnasium), where he studied, a memorial plaque was installed, and a monument was erected in front of the building; in the Kirovsky district of Tiraspol there is a street named after Zelinsky. In Chisinau, a street in the Botanica sector is named after him.

ZELINSKY Nikolay Dmitrievich(1861-1953), Russian organic chemist, founder of a scientific school, one of the founders of organic catalysis and petrochemistry, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1929), Hero of Socialist Labor (1945). Works on the problems of the origin of oil, the chemistry of its hydrocarbons and their catalytic transformations. Discovered the reaction for the production of a-amino acids. Created a coal gas mask (1915). One of the organizers of the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1934; now named after Zelinsky), the ultra-high pressure laboratory of this institute (1939), etc. Prize named after. V.I. Lenin (1934), USSR State Prize (1942, 1946, 1948).

ZELINSKY Nikolay Dmitrievich, Russian organic chemist, author of fundamental discoveries in the field of hydrocarbon synthesis, organic catalysis, catalytic cracking of oil, protein hydrolysis and chemical protection.

Childhood and years of study

Zelinsky was born into a noble family. His father died of rapid consumption in 1863. Two years later his mother died of the same disease. The orphaned boy remained in the care of his grandmother, M.P. Vasilyeva. Fearing the possibility of inheriting the disease, she tried to harden the boy, he grew up to be a strong and active child. Zelinsky received his initial education at the Tiraspol district school, then at the famous Richelieu gymnasium in Odessa. He developed an interest in chemistry very early; at the age of 10 he was already conducting chemical experiments.

The turning point in choosing a life path was Zelinsky’s acquaintance with I.M. Sechenov, who in the mid-1870s gave public lectures at the Great Chemical Auditorium of Novorossiysk (Odessa) University. In 1880 Zelinsky entered the natural history department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University. The largest Russian scientists worked within the walls of this university: I. M. Sechenov, I. I., N. N. Sokolov, N. A. Umov, P. G. Melikishvili, A. O. Kovalevsky, A. A. Verigo and etc. From his first year, Zelinsky decided to devote himself to organic chemistry. Under the guidance of Professor P. G. Melikishvili, he completed his first scientific work, which was published in May 1884 in the Journal of the Physico-Chemical Society. In 1884 Zelinsky graduated from the university and was retained at the department of chemistry.

In 1885 he was sent as a faculty fellow to Germany. The laboratories of I. Wislicenus in Leipzig and W. Meyer in Göttingen were chosen for the internship, where much attention was paid to issues of theoretical organic chemistry and the phenomena of isomerism and stereochemistry. Trying to figure out the structure of thiophene, Mayer suggested that Zelinsky carry out the synthesis of tetrahydrothiophene. In the course of his work, Zelinsky obtained an intermediate product - dichloroethyl sulfide (later called mustard gas), which turned out to be a powerful poison, from which the young scientist suffered greatly, receiving burns to his hands and body. This is how the future creator of the gas mask first received one of the most insidious toxic substances and became its first victim.

Scientific and teaching activities

Upon returning from abroad (1888), Zelinsky passed the master's exam and was enrolled as a freelance privat assistant professor at Novorossiysk University. He began lecturing on organic chemistry to science students. Thanks to the assistance of the head of the university laboratory A. A. Verigo, Zelinsky had the opportunity to begin independent scientific work. He attracted talented students to research activities; under his leadership, A. M. Bezredka, A. A. Bychikhin, A. G. Doroshevsky and others, who later became famous scientists, did their first scientific work. Continuing the research begun in Germany, Zelinsky defended his master's thesis “On the question of isomerism in the thiophene series” (1889), in which he studied in detail the routes for the synthesis of various isomeric thiophene derivatives.

In 1890, at the request of P. G. Melikishvili and A. A. Verigo, 29-year-old Zelinsky took up the post of full-time private assistant professor at Novorossiysk University. In the same year, he received a business trip to Leipzig to the laboratory of V.F. Ostwald.

In 1891, Zelinsky brilliantly defended his doctoral dissertation “Study of the phenomena of stereoisomerism in the series of saturated carbon compounds.” He was one of the first to explore ways of synthesizing stereoisomeric dibasic acids. A series of studies have made methods for obtaining substituted succinic, glutaric, adipic, pimelic acids and dihydroxy fatty acids practical.

In the summer of 1893, on the recommendation of N. A. Menshutkin, Zelinsky was appointed extraordinary professor at Moscow University. Moving to Moscow opened up new opportunities for the scientist. He began the academic year of 1893 by reading the introductory lecture “The Scientific Significance of Pasteur’s Chemical Works,” in which he made a deep analysis of the reasons for the optical activity of organic compounds and made interesting predictions about the significance of stereochemical concepts in chemistry and biology. At Moscow University, Zelinsky taught a basic course in organic chemistry for students of the natural sciences department, conducted practical classes in analytical and organic chemistry, and for a number of years (1899-1904) at the invitation of I.M. Sechenov, he taught a course in organic chemistry for students of the Faculty of Medicine. Talented young people worked in his laboratory: S. S. Nametkin, V. P. Kravets, G. L. Stadnikov and others.

The Moscow period was very fruitful for Zelinsky. The range of interests of the scientist was extremely wide. From 1893 to 1911 he published over 200 scientific articles. In 1906, Zelinsky first developed an accessible method for producing alpha amino acids, explained the reaction mechanism, and synthesized a large number of amino acids.

Oil, a complex mixture of organic compounds, became an important object of scientific research during this period. Continuing the research of V.V. Markovnikov, he intensively developed the problem of rational use of oil, in particular the issues of its aromatization. In 1911 Zelinsky discovered dehydrogenation catalysis of naphthenes using platinum and palladium. The result of these studies was the launch of Russia's first production of thermal cracking of oil.

Zelinsky also managed to carry out a lot of public work. He organized the department of organic chemistry at the Higher Women's Courses and created an excellent laboratory. In the early 1900s, Zelinsky participated in the creation of the Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance in Moscow, in 1908 - in the opening of the People's University. Shanyavsky.

In 1911, among a large group of professors and teachers at Moscow University, Zelinsky resigned in protest against the reactionary policies of the Minister of Education Casso, who constantly interfered in the affairs of the university. Zelinsky lost the opportunity to conduct research work. For some time he lectured at the People's University. Shanyavsky, and then moved to St. Petersburg, where he became the head of the department of commodity science at the Faculty of Economics of the Polytechnic Institute and headed the Central Laboratory. From 1914 to 1922 Zelinsky published only 10 scientific works, but his activity did not weaken, but took a different direction. In St. Petersburg, Zelinsky began researching the structure of proteins. In 1914, he first proposed the principles of the catalytic method of splitting protein bodies.

During the First World War, the scientist actively conducted research in the field of catalytic cracking and pyrolysis of oil, which contributed to a noticeable increase in the yield of toluene, the raw material for the production of trinitrotoluene (TNT, tol). This research was of paramount importance to the defense industry. Zelinsky was the first to propose using available aluminosilicates and oxide catalysts, which are still used today, as catalysts for the dehydrogenation of petroleum hydrocarbons. In St. Petersburg, Zelinsky developed a means of protection against chemical warfare agents - a coal gas mask.

Making a gas mask

On April 22, 1915, in the Ypres region, at the junction of the French and British fronts, the Germans carried out their first gas chemical attack. As a result, out of 12 thousand soldiers, only 2 thousand remained alive. On May 31, a similar attack was repeated on the Russian-German front near Warsaw. The losses among the soldiers were enormous. Zelinsky set the task of finding a reliable means of protection against poisonous gases. Realizing that a universal gas mask requires a universal absorber, for which the nature of the gas would be completely indifferent, Zelinsky came up with the idea of using ordinary charcoal. Together with V.S. Sadikov, he developed a method for activating coal by calcination, which significantly increased its absorption capacity. In June 1915, at a meeting of the anti-gas commission at the Russian Technical Society, Zelinsky first reported on the remedy he had found. At the end of 1915, engineer E. L. Kummant proposed using a rubber helmet in the design of a gas mask. Due to the criminal delay in the introduction of the gas mask due to the fault of the army command, it was only in February 1916, after testing in the field, that it was finally put into service. By mid-1916, mass production of Zelinsky-Kummant gas masks was established. In total, during the First World War, more than 11 million gas masks were sent to the active army, which saved the lives of millions of Russian soldiers.

After the revolutions

After the February Revolution of 1917, Zelinsky received the right to return to Moscow University and moved to Moscow again. After the October Revolution of 1917, he continued to work at the department. Already in 1918, Zelinsky participated in solving urgent problems facing the country, studying methods for producing gasoline from fuel oil. Since 1923, Zelinsky published a large number of articles on catalysis, the synthesis of new compounds, the origin of oil, cholesterol, protein substances, rubber synthesis, etc.

For his enormous contribution to the development of chemical science, Zelinsky was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists (1921), and was awarded the Grand Prize named after. A. M. Butlerov (1924), awarded the title of Honored Scientist (1926), elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1926), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1929). In 1934 he was awarded the Prize. V.I. Lenin, in 1942, 1946, 1948 - three State Prizes of the USSR. In 1945 Zelinsky was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and in 1951 he was awarded the Order of Lenin. The Institute of Organic Chemistry in Moscow is named after him (1953).

At the end of the 20th century, UNESCO published a list of 100 names of scientists from around the world who have made an invaluable contribution to the development of humanity. Along with Hippocrates and Euclid, this list also contains the name of a Tiraspol resident, one of the insightful researchers who anticipated many scientific phenomena, a luminary of chemistry, the inventor of mustard gas and a gas mask, Academician Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky.

Nikolai Zelinsky was born on February 6 (January 25, old style) 1861 in Tiraspol, Kherson province, into a noble family. His father died of rapid consumption in 1863. Two years later, his mother died of the same disease. The orphaned boy remained in the care of his grandmother, M.P. Vasilyeva.

Zelinsky received his initial education at the Tiraspol district school, then at the famous Richelieu gymnasium in Odessa. He developed an interest in chemistry very early; at the age of 10 he was already conducting chemical experiments.

The turning point in choosing a life path was Nikolai Zelinsky’s acquaintance with Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov, who in the mid-1870s gave public lectures at the Great Chemical Auditorium of Novorossiysk (Odessa) University. In 1880, Zelinsky entered the natural history department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University. From his first year, Zelinsky decided to devote himself to organic chemistry. Under the guidance of Professor P. G. Melikishvili, he completed his first scientific work, which was published in May 1884 in the Journal of the Physico-Chemical Society. In 1884 he graduated from the university and was retained at the department of chemistry.

In 1885, Nikolai Zelinsky was sent as a faculty fellow to Germany. The laboratories of Johannes Wislicenus in Leipzig and Victor Meyer in Göttingen were chosen for the internship, where much attention was paid to issues of theoretical organic chemistry and the phenomena of isomerism and stereochemistry.

In the course of his work, Nikolai Dmitrievich obtained an intermediate product - dichloroethyl sulfide (later called mustard gas), which turned out to be a powerful poison, from which the young scientist suffered greatly, receiving burns to his hands and body. This is how the future creator of the gas mask first received one of the most insidious toxic substances and became its first victim.

Upon returning from abroad (in 1888), Zelinsky passed the master's exam and was enrolled as a freelance privat assistant professor at Novorossiysk University. He began lecturing on organic chemistry to science students. Thanks to the assistance of the head of the university laboratory A. A. Verigo, Zelinsky had the opportunity to begin independent scientific work. Continuing the research begun in Germany, Nikolai Dmitrievich defended his master's thesis “On the issue of isomerism in the thiophene series” (1889), in which he studied in detail the routes for the synthesis of various isomeric thiophene derivatives.

In 1890, 29-year-old Zelinsky took up the position of full-time private assistant professor at Novorossiysk University. In the same year, he received a business trip to Leipzig to the laboratory of Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald. In 1891, Nikolai Zelinsky brilliantly defended his doctoral dissertation “Study of the phenomena of stereoisomerism in the series of saturated carbon compounds.” He was one of the first to explore ways of synthesizing stereoisomeric dibasic acids.

In the summer of 1893, Nikolai Zelinsky was appointed extraordinary professor at Moscow University. Moving to Moscow opened up new opportunities for the scientist. He began his academic year of 1893 by reading the introductory lecture “The Scientific Significance of Pasteur’s Chemical Works,” in which he made a deep analysis of the reasons for the optical activity of organic compounds and made interesting predictions about the significance of stereochemical concepts in chemistry and biology. At Moscow University, Zelinsky taught a basic course in organic chemistry for students in the natural sciences department, taught practical classes in analytical and organic chemistry, and for a number of years (1899-1904) taught a course in organic chemistry for students of the Faculty of Medicine.

The Moscow period was very fruitful for Nikolai Zelinsky. The range of interests of the scientist was extremely wide. From 1893 to 1911 he published over 200 scientific articles. In 1906, he first developed an accessible method for producing alpha amino acids, explained the reaction mechanism, and synthesized a large number of amino acids.

Oil, a complex mixture of organic compounds, became an important object of scientific research during this period. He intensively developed the problem of rational use of oil, in particular the issues of its aromatization. In 1911, Zelinsky discovered dehydrogenation catalysis of naphthenes using platinum and palladium. The result of these studies was the launch of Russia's first production of thermal cracking of oil.

Nikolai Dmitrievich also managed to carry out a lot of public work. He organized the department of organic chemistry at the Higher Women's Courses and created an excellent laboratory. In the early 1900s, Zelinsky participated in the creation of the Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance in Moscow, and in 1908 - in the opening of the Shanyavsky People's University.

In 1911, among a large group of professors and teachers at Moscow University, Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky resigned in protest against the reactionary policies of the Minister of Education Lev Aristideovich Kasso, who constantly interfered in the affairs of the university. Zelinsky lost the opportunity to conduct research. For some time he lectured at the Shanyavsky People's University, and then moved to St. Petersburg, where he became the head of the department of commodity science at the Faculty of Economics of the Polytechnic Institute and headed the Central Laboratory. From 1914 to 1922, the scientist published only 10 scientific works, but his activity did not weaken, but took a different direction. In St. Petersburg, Zelinsky began researching the structure of proteins. In 1914, he first proposed the principles of the catalytic method of splitting protein bodies.

During the First World War 1914-1918, Nikolai Zelinsky actively conducted research in the field of catalytic cracking and pyrolysis of oil, which contributed to a noticeable increase in the yield of toluene, the raw material for the production of trinitrotoluene (TNT, tol). This research was of paramount importance to the defense industry. He was the first to propose using available aluminosilicates and oxide catalysts, which are still used today, as catalysts for the dehydrogenation of petroleum hydrocarbons. In St. Petersburg, Zelinsky developed a means of protection against chemical warfare agents - a coal gas mask.

In June 1915, at a meeting of the anti-gas commission at the Russian Technical Society, Zelinsky first reported on the remedy he had found. At the end of 1915, engineer E. L. Kummant proposed using a rubber helmet in the design of a gas mask. In February 1916, after testing in field conditions, it was put into service. By mid-1916, mass production of Zelinsky-Kummant gas masks was established. In total, during the First World War, more than 11 million gas masks were sent to the active army, which saved the lives of millions of Russian soldiers.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Nikolai Zelinsky received the right to return to Moscow University and moved to Moscow again. After the October Revolution of 1917, he continued to work at the department. Already in 1918, the chemist participated in solving urgent problems facing the country and studied methods for producing gasoline from fuel oil. Since 1923, the scientist has published a large number of articles on catalysis, the synthesis of new compounds, the origin of oil, cholesterol, proteins, rubber synthesis, etc.

For his enormous contribution to the development of chemical science, Zelinsky was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists (1921), awarded the Grand Prize named after Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (1924), awarded the title of Honored Scientist (1926), elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1926), Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1929). In 1934 he was awarded the Prize. V.I. Lenin, in 1942, 1946, 1948 - three State Prizes of the USSR. In 1945 Zelinsky was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and in 1951 he was awarded the Order of Lenin. The Institute of Organic Chemistry in Moscow is named after him (1953).

In everyday life, the scientist was a good family man. Nikolai Dmitrievich loved painting, music, and attended concerts. He himself was personally acquainted with many artists and often received them at his dacha.

The scientist was partial to the female sex. Zelinsky had three marriages, each of which lasted a quarter of a century. The first wife, Raisa, died in 1906, their marriage lasted 25 years. The second wife is Evgenia Kuzmina-Karavaeva, a pianist - the marriage lasted 25 years. In his second marriage, a daughter was born, Raisa Zelinskaya-Plate (1910-2001). The third wife is Nina Evgenievna Zhukovskaya-Bog, an artist - the marriage lasted 20 years. The third marriage produced two sons, Andrei and Nikolai. Both sons of Nikolai Dmitrievich were born when the scientist was already over 70. All the descendants of the academician are proud of their famous relative. One of them, Nikolai Alfredovich Plate, followed in the footsteps of his famous grandfather and became a chemist.

Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky died on July 31, 1953 in Moscow, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Tiraspol residents carefully preserve the memory of their outstanding compatriot. The city has the only House-Museum of Academician Zelinsky in the world. It was formed in 1987, in the house where the scientist lived as a child. Today the museum consists of 4 halls, reproducing the decor of the house of a noble family of the 19th century, and houses more than two hundred unique exhibits. Here you can learn about the studies, scientific activities and life of an academician in Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Germany.