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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2000  > July  >
Chemistry for Everyone
The Story of the Wagner-Meerwein Rearrangement
Ludmila Birladeanu
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
Cover
July 2000
Vol. 77 No. 7
p. 858
Abstract
In the classical period of organic chemistry, the general guiding concept on which structure determination of organic compounds was based was Laurent's principle of "least structural change". This principle was violated in 1860 with the discovery of the pinacol rearrangement, a reaction that led to the development of a fascinating area of research. It took many decades to elucidate the mechanism of molecular rearrangements. The resulting insight revolutionized the theory of organic chemistry. This work involved the greatest chemists of the 19th and 20th centuries, among whom two names stand out: Georg Wagner, who showed what happens in these strange reshufflings of atoms, and Hans Meerwein, who showed how it happens. This paper tells the story of the long, arduous journey toward comprehending the mechanism of molecular rearrangements.
More Information
*  Citation
 Birladeanu, Ludmila. J. Chem. Educ. 2000 77 858.
*  Keywords
 History / Philosophy; Mechanisms; Organic Chemistry; Reactive Intermediates; Molecular Properties / Structure
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 2, 2000
April 15, 2005
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