Urea 1828
From WikidChem
[edit]1828 Urea and Isomerism
There was a correspondence between Wohler and Berzelius:
Wohler was discussing how when they worked together with ammonium cynate, a crystallize substance was created that has properties neither of ammonium or cynate (It did not act as the salt that they were expecting from the double decomposition reaction, but instead like Prout's Urea).
When adding sodium hydroxide to an ammonium salt he espected the odor of ammonia, but it didn't appear with "ammonium cyanate".
When added H+ ions he did not smell the expected OCNH.
He also added Pb in order to create Pb(OCN)2 but did not get this salt.
When they added HNO3 (nitric acid), he did get the brilliant crystal flakes like those that Prout had gotten when he added urea and nitric acid.
Berzelius wonders why the salt properties completely disappear when the acid and ammonium are combined.
Might Ammonium Cynate be Urea?
Wohler analyzed the results (seen in the next slides) in order to test this hypothesis. He was fortunate because he didn't have to analyze urea as it had already been analyzed by another scientist
