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What a chemistry student should know about the history of Prussian blue

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Abstract

The exciting story of the serendipitous discovery of Prussian blue has fascinated artists, art historians, chemists, historians of science and others since more than three centuries. Based on several new research results from the last decade, this lecture for chemistry students gives a short but precise up-to-date account on the history of Prussian blue. It starts with the discovery of this new blue pigment by the color maker and former army officer Johann Jacob von Diesbach and the theologian and alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel in 1706 in Berlin. This is followed by an account of the early years of this pigment until the preparation method was finally made public by the Royal Court Apothecary (pharmacist) Caspar Neumann from Berlin who provided the Prussian blue recipe to the Royal Society for anonymous publication. In the following part of this lecture, it is reported about changes in the production method of Prussian blue and about new applications areas for the compound. In the last few decades this research towards new fields of application of Prussian blue has broadened dramatically, which can been seen from the ever-increasing number of publications per year with Prussian blue as a research subject. At the end of this lecture, we shortly discuss the history of the large group of Prussian blue analogues.

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Fig. 1

Source: photo by the author, 2012

Fig. 2

Source: Die Portraitsammlung der Dr. Senckenbergischen Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main, creator of the digital reproduction: Sebastian Krupp, Nauheim

Fig. 3

Source: Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, photographer: Daniel Lindner

Fig. 4

Source: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Wien

Fig. 5

Source: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München

Fig. 6

Source: archive of the author

Fig. 7

Source: Department of Earth Sciences and Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge, UK

Fig. 8

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Fig. 9

Source: [26], Reprinted with permission from ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Copyright 2016 American Chemical Society.

Fig. 10

Source: Heyl Chemisch-pharmazeutische Fabrik GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin

Fig. 11

Source: photo by the author, 2015

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Notes

  1. According to Senckenberg’s diary, Dippel’s assistant Rösser was a son of the physician Jacob Rösser (1642- after 1712) who published two alchemical books under the pseudonyms Johann de Monte Raphaim and J.R.V.M.D.

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  1. Member of the Network Alchemy at the Research Center Gotha of the University Erfurt, Am Graben 48, 15732, Eichwalde, Germany

    Alexander Kraft

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Kraft, A. What a chemistry student should know about the history of Prussian blue. ChemTexts 4, 16 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40828-018-0071-2

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