Physical chemist — Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) was a German-Baltic chemist and physicist, born in Riga, among the founders of physical chemistry as an independent discipline. Active chiefly in Leipzig, he studied catalysis, chemical equilibria, reaction kinetics and the properties of solutions. For his work on catalysis he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909. He also developed the industrial process for producing nitric acid from ammonia, of great economic importance. Philosophically he championed energetics, for a long time denying the real existence of atoms, a position later overturned by experimental evidence.
Trivia
He was among the last significant scientists to reject atomic theory, giving in only after Perrin’s experiments on Brownian motion confirmed Einstein’s predictions.
Theories and contributions
- Ostwald’s dilution law — Relates the degree of dissociation of a weak electrolyte to its concentration and dissociation constant.
- Catalysis — Systematic study of catalysts, substances that speed up a reaction without being consumed, underlying industrial chemistry.
- Ostwald process — Catalytic oxidation of ammonia to produce nitric acid on an industrial scale.
Appears in chapters
Linked atoms
2 linked atoms.