Residence Russia Name Gottlieb Kirchhoff | Role Chemist Fields Chemistry | |
Died February 14, 1833, Saint Petersburg, Russia | ||
Gottlieb Sigismund Constantin Kirchhoff (19 February 1764 – 14 February 1833) was a German chemist. In 1811 he became the first person to convert starch into a sugar (corn syrup), by heating it with sulfuric acid. This sugar was eventually named glucose. He also developed a method of refining vegetable oil, and established a factory that prepared two tons of refined oil a day.
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
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