Gerhard Schrader

Gerhard Schrader ( born February 25, 1903 in Bortfeld, Lower Saxony, † 10 April 1990 in Cronenberg at Wuppertal ) was a German chemist.

Life and work

Gerhard Schrader grew up in Bortfeld, today to turn the castle, and studied after school chemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He received his doctorate in 1928, Dr. -Ing. and then went to Bayer AG in the dye research and in 1930 the main laboratory in Leverkusen.

From his work on organic phosphoric acid ester from 1936, first the dangerous nerve agents Tabun (1937) and Sarin (1938 ) emerged. The first organic insecticide, TEPP, Schrader developed in 1938. Succeeded in 1944 by the group of Schrader to convert the P = O function of the phosphoric acid diester in a P = S function. This modified thio- phosphoric acid esters are significantly less toxic to mammals and found and find great sales as insecticides and herbicides. Schrader's group synthesized the insecticide parathion - also known as E 605. Even today such modified thio- phosphoric acid esters are still used as pesticides. As compared to the insecticide on the basis of organic chlorine compounds such as Lindane and DDT thio- phosphoric acid ester in the bottom are well biodegradable.

Schrader was after the war for two years in the fortress Kranenberg (Taunus ) held by the Allies, where he had to write down his research on organic phosphoric acid esters.

1952 Schrader found with employees trichlorfon (TCP). This substance gives off at pH = 5.4 hydrochloric, with dichlorvos ( DDVP ) is created. With TCP, for example, cattle were treated, the skin bumps exhibited by a species of fly. TCP is in the gut low toxicity and could since 1960 in schistosomiasis are used for some time.

Honors

He got in 1956 from the German Chemical Society awarded the Adolf von Baeyer Medal for his outstanding achievements in the discovery of novel pesticides.