Morris S. Kharasch, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Morris S. Kharasch

American chemist

Date of Birth: 24-Aug-1895

Place of Birth: Kremenets, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine

Date of Death: 09-Oct-1957

Profession: chemist, university teacher

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Virgo


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About Morris S. Kharasch

  • Morris Selig Kharasch (August 24, 1895 – October 9, 1957) was a pioneering organic chemist best known for his work with free radical additions and polymerizations.
  • He defined the peroxide effect, explaining how an anti-Markovnikov orientation could be achieved via free radical addition.
  • Kharasch was born in the Russian Empire in 1895 and immigrated to the United States at the age of 13.
  • In 1919, he completed his Ph.D.
  • in chemistry at the University of Chicago and spent most of his professional career there. Most of his research in the 1920s focused on organo-mercuric derivatives.
  • He synthesized an important anti-microbial alkyl mercuric sulfur compound, thimerosal, commercially known as Merthiolate, which he patented in 1928 and assigned to the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company.
  • Merthiolate was introduced as a vaccine preservative in 1931, and by the late 1980s thimerosal was used in all whole-cell DPT vaccines.
  • Nobel laureate Herbert C.
  • Brown was one of his students during the 1930s. When World War II began, the US government recognized the need for a synthetic rubber and employed the best chemists around the nation to aid in this effort.
  • In 1942, Kharasch joined the American Synthetic Rubber Research Program and applied his knowledge of radical reactions to aid in the polymerization of synthetic styrene.
  • In his later years, Kharasch devoted his attention to studying the Grignard reaction and in 1954 co-authored a book with O.
  • Reinmuth entitled Grignard Reactions of Nonmetallic Substances.

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