Background
Curtius was born on March 27, 1857, in Duisburg, Germany, into a scholarly family originally from Bremen. His grandfather, Friedrich Wilhelm Curtius was engaged in the manufacture of inorganic chemicals.
Hamborner Str. 274-278, 47166 Duisburg, Germany
Curtius graduated from the Gymnasium at Duisburg Leipzig.
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Curtius studied in Heidelberg under Bunsen.
Beethovenstraße 6, 04107 Leipzig, Germany
Under Kolbe’s direction at Leipzig Curtius wrote his doctoral dissertation, “Uber einige neue der Hippursäure analog konstituierte, synthetisch dargestellte Amidosäuren,” receiving the degree on 27 July 1882.
Curtius was born on March 27, 1857, in Duisburg, Germany, into a scholarly family originally from Bremen. His grandfather, Friedrich Wilhelm Curtius was engaged in the manufacture of inorganic chemicals.
After graduating from the Gymnasium at Duisburg Leipzig, Curtius served in the army from 1877 to 1878, becoming a first lieutenant. He studied in Heidelberg under Bunsen and under Kolbe’s direction at Leipzig wrote his doctoral dissertation, “Uber einige neue der Hippursäure analog konstituierte, synthetisch dargestellte Amidosäuren,” receiving the degree on 27 July 1882.
Curtius worked in Baeyer’s laboratories in Munich from 1882 to 1886, when he went to the University of Erlangen as assistant and director of the analytical section of the chemical laboratories. In 1889 he declined an American offer (Worcester Polytechnic) to go to Kiel as professor of chemistry and director of the chemical institute. He succeeded Kekulé at Bonn in 1897 and Victor Meyer (who had succeeded Bunsen in 1889) at Heidelberg in 1898. There he was director of the chemical institute for twenty-eight years and was editor of the Journal für praktische Chemie.
Acting on Kolbe’s adevice, Curtius investigated the synthesis of hippuric acid by the method of Dessaignes, who had prepared the acid from the zinc salt of glycine and benzoyl chloride in 1853. Curtius improved the method, reporting the results in his doctoral dissertation. Baeyer suggested that he use the ethyl ester of glycine; and when Curtius treated it with sodium nitrite and hydrochloric acid, he discovered the first known aliphatic diazo compound, diazoacetic ester. In 1887 he treated the ethyl diazoacetate with concentrated sodium hydroxide, added hot dilute acid to the product, and discovered hydrazine. The commercial process developed by Friedrich Raschig in 1908 (the oxidation of aqueous ammonia by sodium hypochlorite in the presence of gelatin) was used in Germany during World War II for the production of hydrazine to use in rocket fuel. In 1890 Curtius discovered hydrazoic acid HN3, which he called “Stickstoffwasserstoffsäure” (azoimide), by treating benzoyl and hippuryl derivatives of hydrazine with nitrous acid. He reported in 1893 that hydrazoic acid is produced by the action of red fuming nitric acid on a dilute, ice-cold solution of hydrazine. Curtius believed that the structure of hydrazoic acid consisted of a hydrogen atom bonded to one nitrogen atom of a three-nitrogen-atom ring, in line with Emil Fischer’s proposed azide structure of 1878. Thiele pointed out in 1911 that a linear structure gives a better explanation of certain reactions, and a linear structure is accepted today.
In 1882 Curtius began a long series of researches into those compounds that Fischer named polypeptides in 1906. Using diazo compounds as intermediates, Curtius synthesized benzoyl derivatives of amino acids; and in 1904 he succeeded in synthesizing a hexapeptide, benzoyl pentaglycine-aminoacetic acid, by fusing ethyl hippurate with glycine. He investigated the rearrangement of aliphatic ketazines and aldazines into pyrazoline derivatives, prepared azides and hydrazides of acids, and obtained benzyl hydrazine from the reduction of benzaldazine. In 1894 Curtius discovered the first of two reactions that were later named for him, the conversion of an acid into the corresponding amine by way of the azide and urethane. By varying the technique, he was able to prepare the corresponding aldehyde in place of the amine in 1906. The second reaction bearing his name is the conversion of an azide into isocyanate, discovered in 1913.
Collaborating with Hartwig Franzen, Curtius began investigating plant chemistry in 1912. They found hexenal but no formaldehyde in green plants. The results of this work caused the abandonment of Baeyer’s hypothesis that hexoses are built up from the condensation of hydrated formaldehyde within the plant tissues.
Nothing is known of Curtius' wife or kids.