Wilhelm Johann Schlenk was a German chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

. He was born in Munich and also studied chemistry there. Schlenk succeeded Hermann Emil Fischer

Hermann Emil Fischer

Hermann Emil Fischer, Emil Fischer was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms.-Early years:Fischer was born in Euskirchen, near Cologne,...

 at the University of Berlin in 1919.

Schlenk was an organic chemist who discovered organolithium compounds around 1917. He also investigated free radicals and carbanion

Carbanion

A carbanion is an anion in which carbon has an unshared pair of electrons and bears a negative charge usually with three substituents for a total of eight valence electrons. The carbanion exists in a trigonal pyramidal geometry. Formally a carbanion is the conjugate base of a carbon acid.where B...

s and discovered (together with his son) that organomagnesium halides are capable of participating in a complex chemical equilibrium, now known as a Schlenk equilibrium

Schlenk equilibrium

The Schlenk equilibrium is a chemical equilibrium named after its discoverer Wilhelm Schlenk taking place in solutions of Grignard reagents.The process described is an equilibrium between two equivalents of an alkyl or aryl magnesium halide on the left of the equation and on the right side, one...

.

Today Schlenk is remembered mostly for developing techniques to handle air-sensitive compounds, and for his invention of the Schlenk flask

Schlenk flask

A Schlenk flask, or Schlenk tube is a reaction vessel typically used in air sensitive chemistry, invented by Wilhelm Schlenk. It has a side arm fitted with a PTFE or ground glass stopcock which allows the vessel to be evacuated or filled with gases...

. The latter is a reaction vessel with a glass or Teflon tap for the addition and removal of gases, such as nitrogen

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...

 or argon

Argon

Argon is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table . Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide...

. He is also known for the Schlenk line

Schlenk line

225px|thumb|Vacuum gas manifold set up: 1 inert gas in, 2 inert gas out , 3 vacuum 4 reaction line, 5 Teflon tap to gas, 6 Teflon tap to vacuum 225px|thumb| Vacuum gas manifold set up: 1 inert gas in, 2 inert gas out , 3 vacuum , 4 reaction line, 5 double oblique stopcock...

, a double manifold

Manifold

In mathematics , a manifold is a topological space that on a small enough scale resembles the Euclidean space of a specific dimension, called the dimension of the manifold....

 incorporating a vacuum system and a gas line joined by double oblique taps that allow the user to switch between vacuum and gas for the manipulation of air-sensitive compounds.

External links

• Picture of Schlenk
• The Arfvedson-Schlenk Award (in German)