Charles Friedel

Charles Friedel (French: [ʃaʁl fʁidɛl]; 12 March 1832 – 20 April 1899) was a French chemist and mineralogist.

Charles Friedel
Friedel in 1890s
Born	12 March 1832 Strasbourg, France
Died	20 April 1899(1899-04-20) (aged 67) Montauban, France
Education	University of Strasbourg Sorbonne
Known for	Friedel–Crafts reaction Ketonic decarboxylation Organosilicon compound
Awards	Davy Medal (1880)
Scientific career
Fields	Mineralogy Chemistry
Institutions	Sorbonne
Thesis	Recherches sur les acétones et sur les aldéhydes. Suivi de Sur la pyro-électricité dans les cristaux bons conducteurs de l'électricité
Doctoral advisor	Charles Adolphe Wurtz
Doctoral students	Henri Becquerel Georges Urbain André-Louis Debierne[1]
Signature

Life

A native of Strasbourg, France, he was a student of Louis Pasteur at the Sorbonne. In 1876, he became a professor of chemistry and mineralogy at the Sorbonne. While there he was elected as an honorary member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society^[2] in 1892.

Friedel developed the Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions with James Crafts in 1877,^[3][4] and attempted to make synthetic diamonds.

Friedel's wife's father was the engineer, Charles Combes.^[5] The Friedel family is a rich lineage of French scientists:

• Georges Friedel (1865–1933), French crystallographer and mineralogist; son of Charles
• Edmond Friedel (fr) (1895–1972), French mining engineer, founder of BRGM, the French geological survey; son of Georges
• Jacques Friedel (1921–2014), French physicist; son of Edmond