Mikhail Kucherov: "The Experiment Confirmed my Hypothesis"

Named reactions are key points in the development of chemistry. Any competent chemist easily identifies the reaction named after Wittig, or Grignard, Diels-Alder, or Friedel-Crafts, Michael, or Favorsky. But how much do we can say about scientist who discovered it? This Essay is devoted to the transition-metal-catalyzed hydration of acetylenic hydrocarbons discovered by Russian chemist Mikhail Kucherov. This reaction is one of the most straightforward methods for the synthesis of carbonyl compounds. With it, in industry for a long time acetaldehyde was essentially manufactured from accessible unsaturated raw material-acetylene. This reaction is one of the first steps in the establishment of homogenous metal complex catalysis in organic synthesis. Herein, we described the history of this discovery and the role of many scientists in the development of research in this field. We would also like to show the life of Russian scientists in the latter half of the 19th century.