Gottlieb Kirchhoff

Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhoff
Born	19 February 1764 Teterow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Died	14 February 1833 (aged 68) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Residence	Russia
Fields	Chemistry
Known for	Hydrolysis of starch into a sugar. Refining vegetable oil.

Gottlieb Sigismund Constantin Kirchhoff (19 February 1764 – 14 February 1833) was a Russian chemist. In 1812 he became the first person to convert starch into a sugar (corn syrup), by heating it with sulfuric acid.^[1] This sugar was eventually named glucose.^[2] He also developed a method of refining vegetable oil, and established a factory that prepared two tons of refined oil a day.^[2]

Since the sulfuric acid was not consumed, it was an early example of a catalyst. (A term that Jöns Jacob Berzelius would later coin.)

References

1. Kirchhoff (1811) Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, 4 : 27. From page 27: "Mr. l'Adjoint Kirchhoff présenta à la Conférence trois flacons, contenans: 1°) du Sirop produit par l'art dans quelques végétaux (la pomme de terre, le froment et le blé noir ou Sarazin), … " (Assistant [professor] Kirchhoff presented to the conference three bottles, containing: (1) syrup produced artificially from some vegetables (potato, wheat and buckwheat or Sarazin), … )
2. Asimov, Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology 2nd Revised edition