Icilio Guareschi and his amazing "1897 reaction".

Gian Cesare Tron,Giovanni Appendino,Mara Fausone,Alberto Minassi,Giovanni Sorba

doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.93

Abstract

Organic chemistry honors Icilio Guareschi (1847–1918) with three eponymic reactions, the best known ones being the Guareschi synthesis of pyridones and the Guareschi–Lustgarten reaction. A third Guareschi reaction, the so-called “Guareschi 1897 reaction”, is one of the most unusual reactions in organic chemistry, involving the radical-mediated paradoxical aerobic generation of hydrocarbons in near-neutral water solution. A discussion of the mechanism of this amazing reaction, the only metal-free process that generates hydrocarbons, and the implications of the approach in biology and geosciences mirrors the multifaceted scientific personality of the discoverer. Thus, Guareschi’s eclectic range of activities spans a surprising variety of topics, overcoming the boundaries of the traditional partition of chemistry into organic, inorganic, and analytical branches and systematically crosses the divide between pure and applied science as well as between the history of chemistry and the personal contributions to its development.

Highlights

Modern science emphasizes focusing and prizes specialists over generalists
Zonation occurred rapidly in chemistry during the first decades of the 20th century, and Hammett, in the introduction of his Physical Organic Chemistry textbook, bemoaned already in 1940 that physical chemists and organic chemists proudly boasted their ignorance in one another’s discipline, with physicists considering the study of organic reactions “soapmaking” [1], a technical improvement from the status of “stamp collecting”, where Rutherford is rumored to have relegated chemistry
Guareschi’s technical studies, such as those on the elemental analysis of gases and the determination of hydration in salts, were popular in his times but have been made obsolete by instrumental advances, just like his sodium amalgam reduction of amides to aldehydes has disappeared from the organic chemistry armamentarium of reactions

Summary

Introduction

Modern science emphasizes focusing and prizes specialists over generalists. Nowadays, scientists "feed on one plant only", but their ancestors had a more varied diet. A third Guareschi reaction, the so-called “Guareschi 1897 reaction”, is one of the most unusual reactions in organic chemistry, involving the radical-mediated paradoxical aerobic generation of hydrocarbons in near-neutral water solution.

Results

Conclusion