Flavitskii, Flavian Mikhailovich

Born Jan. 6 (18), 1848, in Usman’, in what is now Lipetsk Oblast; died Oct. 19 (Nov. 1), 1917, in Kazan. Russian chemist. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1907).

After graduating from the University of Kharkov, Flavitskii worked with A. M. Butlerov from 1870 to 1873. From 1873 until his death he taught at the University of Kazan, where he became a professor in 1884.

In 1875, Flavitskii demonstrated that amylene hydrate was merely tert-amyl alcohol (2-methyl-2-butanol), which upon dehydration generates the hydrocarbon 2-methyl-2-butene (Flavit-skii’s amylene). He performed (1880) pioneering work on the chemistry of terpenes and suggested a classification scheme for them. He was the first to succeed in interconverting monocyclic and bicyclic terpenes. Flavitskii also developed a chemical theory of solutions.