Page:EB1911 - Volume 06.djvu/73

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
60
CHEMISTRY
[ANALYTICAL

corresponding to paroxazine (para-oxazine). Pyridine gives origin to: pyridazine or ortho-diazine, pyrimidine or meta-diazine, pyrazine or para-diazine, osotriazine, unsymmetrical triazine, symmetrical triazine, osotetrazone and tetrazine. The skeletons of these types are (the carbon atoms are omitted for brevity):

We have previously referred to the condensation of heterocyclic ring systems containing two vicinal carbon atoms with benzene, naphthalene and other nuclei. The more important nuclei of this type have received special and non-systematic names; when this is not the case, such terms as phen-, benzo-, naphtho- are prefixed to the name of the heterocyclic ring. One or two benzene nuclei may suffer condensation with the furfurane, thiophene and pyrrol rings, the common carbon atoms being vicinal to the hetero-atom. The mono-benzo-derivatives are coumarone, benzothiophene and indole; the dibenzo-derivatives are diphenylene oxide, dibenzothiophene or diphenylene sulphide, and carbazole. Typical formulae are (R denoting O, S or NH):

Isomers are possible, for the condensation may be effected on the two carbon atoms symmetrically placed to the hetero-atom; these isomers, however, are more of the nature of internal anhydrides. Benz-oxazoles and -thiazoles have been prepared, benz-isoxazoles are known as indoxazenes; benzo-pyrazoles occur in two structural forms, named indazoles and isindazoles. Derivatives of osotriazol also exist in two forms—azimides and pseudo-azimides.

Proceeding to the six-membered hetero-atomic rings, the benzo-, dibenzo- and naphtho-derivatives are frequently of great commercial and scientific importance, α-pyrone condenses with the benzene ring to form coumarin and isocoumarin; benzo-γ-pyrone constitutes the nucleus of several vegetable colouring matters (chrysin, fisetin, quercetin, &c., which are derivatives of flavone or phenyl benzo-γ-pyrone); dibenzo-γ-pyrone is known as xanthone; related to this substance are fluorane (and fluorescein), fluorone, fluorime, pyronine, &c. The pyridine ring condenses with the benzene ring to form quinoline and isoquinoline; acridine and phenanthridine are dibenzo-pyridines; naphthalene gives rise to α- and β-naphthoquinolines and the anthrapyridines; anthracene gives anthraquinoline; while two pyridine nuclei connected by an intermediate benzene nucleus give the phenanthrolines. Naphthyridines and naphthinolines result from the condensation of two pryridine and two quinoline nuclei respectively; and quino-quinolines are unsymmetrical naphthyridine nuclei condensed with a benzene nucleus. Benzo-orthoxazines, -metoxazines and -paroxazines are known: dibenzoparoxazine or phenoxazine is the parent of a valuable series of dyestuffs; dibenzoparathiazine or thiodiphenylamine is important from the same aspect. Benzo-ortho-diazines exist in two structural forms, cinnolin and phthalazine; benzo-meta-diazines are known as quinazolines; benzo-para-diazines are termed quinoxalines; the dibenzo-compounds are named phenazines, this last group including many valuable dyestuffs—indulines, safranines, &c. In addition to the types of compounds enumerated above we may also notice purin, tropine and the terpenes.

V. Analytical Chemistry

This branch of chemistry has for its province the determination of the constituents of a chemical compound or of a mixture of compounds. Such a determination is qualitative, the constituent being only detected or proved to be present, or quantitative, in which the amount present is ascertained. The methods of chemical analysis may be classified according to the type of reaction: (1) dry or blowpipe analysis, which consists in an examination of the substance in the dry condition; this includes such tests as ignition in a tube, ignition on charcoal in the blowpipe flame, fusion with borax, microcosmic salt or fluxes, and flame colorations (in quantitative work the dry methods are sometimes termed “dry assaying”); (2) wet analysis, in which a solution of the substance is treated with reagents which produce specific reactions when certain elements or groups of elements are present. In quantitative analysis the methods can be subdivided into: (a) gravimetric, in which the constituent is precipitated either as a definite insoluble compound by the addition of certain reagents, or electrolytically, by the passage of an electric current; (b) volumetric, in which the volume of a reagent of a known strength which produces a certain definite reaction is measured; (c) colorimetric, in which the solution has a particular tint, which can be compared with solutions of known strengths.

Historical.—The germs of analytical chemistry are to be found in the writings of the pharmacists and chemists of the iatrochemical period. The importance of ascertaining the proximate composition of bodies was clearly realized by Otto Tachenius; but the first systematic investigator was Robert Boyle, to whom we owe the introduction of the term analysis. Boyle recognized many reagents which gave precipitates with certain solutions: he detected sulphuric and hydrochloric acids by the white precipitates formed with calcium chloride and silver nitrate respectively; ammonia by the white cloud formed with the vapours of nitric or hydrochloric acids; and copper by the deep blue solution formed by a solution of ammonia. Of great importance is his introduction of vegetable juices (the so-called indicators, q.v.) to detect acids and bases. During the phlogistic period, the detection of the constituents of compounds was considerably developed. Of the principal workers in this field we may notice Friedrich Hoffmann, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (who detected iron by its reaction with potassium ferrocyanide, and potassium and sodium by their flame colorations), and especially Carl Scheele and Torbern Olof Bergman. Scheele enriched the knowledge of chemistry by an immense number of facts, but he did not possess the spirit of working systematically as Bergman did. Bergman laid the foundations of systematic qualitative analysis, and devised methods by which the metals may be separated into groups according to their behaviour with certain reagents. This subdivision, which is of paramount importance in the analysis of minerals, was subsequently developed by Wilhelm August Lampadius in his Handbuch zur chemischen Analyse der Mineralien (1801) and by John Friedrich A. Göttling in his Praktische Anleitung zur prüfenden und zurlegenden Chemie (1802).

The introduction of the blowpipe into dry qualitative analysis by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt marks an important innovation. The rapidity of the method, and the accurate results which it gave in the hands of a practised experimenter, led to its systematization by Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann, and in more recent times by K. F. Plattner, whose treatise Die Probirkunst mit dem Löthrohr is a standard work on the subject. Another type of dry reaction, namely, the flame coloration, had been the subject of isolated notices, as, for example, the violet flame of potassium and the orange flame of sodium observed by Marggraf and Scheele, but a systematic account was wanting until Cartmell took the subject up. His results (Phil. Mag. 16, p. 382) were afterwards perfected by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Merz. Closely related to the flame-colorations, we have to notice the great services rendered by the spectroscope to the detection of elements. Rubidium, caesium, thallium, indium and gallium were first discovered by means of this instrument; the study of the rare earths is greatly facilitated, and the composition of the heavenly bodies alone determinable by it.

Quantitative chemistry had been all but neglected before the time of Lavoisier, for although a few chemists such as Tachenius, Bergman and others had realized the advantages which would accrue from a knowledge of the composition of