Julius Tröger

Julius Tröger ( born October 10, 1862 in Leipzig, † July 29, 1942 in Braunschweig ) was a German chemist.

Life and work

Tröger was born in Leipzig and studied at the University of Leipzig 1882-1888. It connected by the reaction of p- toluidine and formaldehyde ago that the systematic name ( ±) -2,8 -dimethyl -6H, 12H -5 ,11- methanodibenzo - [b, f] [ 1,5] diazocine wears, but it is better known under the name Tröger base. Tröger could not explain the structure and therefore received by the Head of the Department John Wislicenus only the score 3 for his doctoral thesis. It took another 48 years before the structure was elucidated.

The structure of the Tröger base contains two conformationally hindered nitrogen atoms that no longer allow the normally occurring Walden inversion ( inversion) and so cause in this case, the nitrogen atoms are the chiral centers of the molecule. The separation of enantiomers by chromatography on a chiral stationary phase was carried out in 1944 by Vladimir Prelog. The method used there sat down by a separation method for enantiomers.

In 1888 he joined the University of Braunschweig, where he remained until his retirement in 1928. Tröger died in 1942 in Braunschweig.