About Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig
Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (6 December 1835 – 19 November 1910) was a German chemist. He discovered the pinacol coupling reaction, mesitylene, diacetyl and biphenyl. Fittig studied the action of sodium on ketones and hydrocarbons. He discovered the Fittig reaction or Wurtz–Fittig reaction for the synthesis of alkylbenzenes, he proposed a diketone structure for benzoquinone and isolated phenanthrene from coal tar. He discovered and synthesized the first lactones and investigated structures of piperine, naphthalene, and fluorene. == Career == Fittig studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen, graduating as Ph.D. with a dissertation on acetone in 1858, under the supervision of Heinrich Limpricht and Friedrich Wöhler. He subsequently held several appointments at Göttingen, becoming Wöhler's assistant in 1858, privatdozent in 1860 and extraordinary professor in 1870. In 1870 he was appointed full professor at University of Tübingen and in 1876 at Strassburg, where the laboratories were erected from his designs. Fittig's research covered wide areas of organic chemistry. The aldehydes and ketones provided material for his earlier work.
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