Blog Series on Chemistry Nobel Laureates (Continued from http://www.scienceindia.in/home/view_blog/14)

Svante August Arrhenius

Born: February 19, 1859 in Sweden; Died: October 2, 1927 in Sweden

Nobel Citation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services he  has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation".

From an early age Arrhenius had an aptitude for arithmetical calculations. At school he was greatly interested in mathematics and physics. His father was a land surveyor employed with University of Uppsala, where Arrhenius enrolled in 1876 for his higher studies in mathematics, chemistry and physics

His father was a land surveyor employed with University of Uppsala, where Arrhenius enrolled in 1876 for his higher studies in mathematics, chemistry and physics.

In 1881 he joined Professor Edlund at the Academy of Sciences, Stockholm to assist him with his studies on electromotive force measurements in spark discharges. While being there, in 1884, he submitted his own research thesis “Investigations on the galvanic conductivity of electrolytes”. This seminal work concluded that electrolytes, when dissolved in water, split or dissociate into electrically opposite positive and negative ions by varying degrees. Degree to which this dissociation occurs depends both on the nature of the substance and its concentration in the solution. The dissociated ions not only act as current carriers during electrolysis, but also possess chemical activity. This led him to define the term "activity constant".

<!--[endif]-->The idea of a connection between electricity and chemical affinity, although was less understood until then, generated a lot of interest among the scientific community. In subsequent years, he further developed the idea in collaboration with other great minds of that time.

He was closely associated with Ostwald, Kohlrausch, Boltzmann and van’t Hoff. During these years, Arrhenius was able to prove the influence of the electrolytic dissociation on the osmotic pressure, the lowering of the freezing point and increase of the boiling point of solutions containing electrolytes. He took up a professorship at Stockholm in Physics.

<!--[endif]-->The Nobel Prize was conferred to him in 1903 and thereafter he was invited by the Academy of Sciences to establish the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry, as its chief. The other notable distinctions that he received for his service to science are: Royal Society's Davy medal (1911) and Faraday Medal of the Chemical Society (1914). 

(Nobel Series on Chemistry to be continued...)