Svante August Arrhenius (Arrhenius Svante August)

(1859-1927)
Awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the creation of the theory of electrolytic dissociation. Born February 19, 1859 in Wijk estate near Uppsala. He graduated from the parochial school in Uppsala, then - Uppsala (1881) and Stockholm (1884) universities. In 1884-1885 he worked at Uppsala University in 1886 - at the Riga Polytechnic Institute in W. Ostwald, in 1886-1887 - at the universities of Wц?rzburg and Graz, in 1888 - in the University of Amsterdam have Ya.Vant Hoff. In 1891 he became a professor of physics at Stockholm University in 1895 - a professor, in 1896 - Rector. In 1905-1927 worked as head of the department of Physical Chemistry, the Nobel Institute in Stockholm. Member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences (1901). In 1882-1883 Arrhenius conducted studies of electrical conductivity of dilute solutions of electrolytes, to determine the molecular weight solutes. This problem does not allow it, but drew attention to the fact that the dilution increases their conductivity. This led him to the idea of spontaneous decay (dissociation) of molecules of salts on the charged particles - ions. By carrying out in the 1884-1886 cycle of studies on the relationship between the chemical properties of electrolyte solutions and their conductivity, . he proposed in 1887 fully grounded theory of electrolytic dissociation, . according to which the activity and the degree of dissociation of electrolytes decrease with increasing concentration of solution,
. This theory had great influence on the development of theoretical chemistry of the first decade of 20 in. It was further developed in the works of P. Debye and E. Huckel, which took into account the electrostatic interaction of ions in solution and overcome the difficulties faced by the Arrhenius theory to explain the properties of strong electrolytes. In 1889 he formulated the theory of Arrhenius activation molecules. He believed that a chemical reaction take only those molecules that have an activation energy - the energy, the excess compared with the average energy of molecules in these conditions. Assuming that the number of active molecules depends on the temperature, he investigated the dependence of reaction rate on this parameter and derived the corresponding equation (Arrhenius equation). The concept of activation energy is widely used in modern chemistry. Arrhenius also interested in the problems of astrophysics (in particular, he suggested that the synthesis of helium from hydrogen atoms is a source of solar energy), the applicability of the physical and chemical laws to biological systems. He was a proponent of panspermia, and thought, . that life can arise from nonliving matter, and that its simplest form (microspores) are distributed in space under the action of light pressure, . Arrhenius was awarded the medals G. Davey, . Dzh.Gibbsa (1911), . M. Faraday (1914),
. Died Arrhenius in Stockholm on Oct. 2, 1927.