Iodine was discovered (according to some apocryphal stories, by accident) in 1811 by the French chemist Bernard Courtois (1777-1838) who was preparing seaweed ashes for the manufacture of gunpowder. The new substance made its appearance on the chemistry stage as purple vapors, which, when cooled down, formed dark lustrous crystals. Samples were studied by a number of chemists, including, among others, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1750), Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829), and Humphry Davy (1778-1829). Briefly after the discovery of iodine, voluminous studies were published describing its properties and reactivity as well as many of its inorganic and organic compounds, and complexes (e.g., the blue-colored complex with starch). The first biogenic organic iodine compound was discovered in 1896 in the marine organism yellow gorgonia by Ferdinand Heinrich Edmund Drechsel<b> </b>(1843-1897), and that was followed by many more, including the thyroid gland hormones. Until 1886, when Conrad Willgerodt (1841-1930) studied the reaction of iodobenzene with chlorine, which produced the first known organic hypervalent iodine(III) compound, (dichloroiodo)benzene, only monovalent iodine organic compounds were known. Many more hypervalent iodine(III) and iodine(V) compounds have been discovered since then that have found wide application in organic synthesis. All major milestones in the history of iodine will be presented.

Iodine and its fascinating history

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.