https://doi.org/10.15255/KUI.2019.051
Published: Kem. Ind. 69 (7-8) (2020) 399–406
Paper reference number: KUI-51/2019
Paper type: Review / History of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
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“Models of Molecules” by Drago Grdenić and the Beginnings of Structural Chemistry in Croatia

N. Raos

Abstract

The beginning of structural chemistry in Croatia can be placed in the year of 1948 when Drago Grdenić (1919–2018) finished his postgraduate study at Moscow University (visiting Nesmeyanov and Kitaigorsky) and in 1952 founded the Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. The research field of Professor Grdenić and his Department was primarily the structural chemistry of mercury compounds, and that of coordination compounds of molybdenum and vanadium, as well as of organic compounds, including macrolide antibiotic azithromycin and its derivatives (in cooperation with PLIVA pharmaceutical company). Special emphasis is given to Grdenić’s book “Modeli molekula” (Models of Molecules), published in 1950, that was initially written as a handbook for the use of Stuart models, produced by the Zagreb company Učila, but turned out to be an extensive, but popular introduction into atomic theory, stereochemistry and structural chemistry. Thus, the book paved the way of modern chemistry to Croatian schools.

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Keywords

Drago Grdenić, Dorothy C. Hodgkin, Zagreb University, Stuart molecular models, X-ray analysis