C.L.+Berthollet

Claude Louis Berthollet, born December 9 1748 in Talloires France, was a savoyard- french chemist. He is best known for his scientific contributions to chemical equilibria from the mechanism of chemical reactions, for his contribution to modern chemical nomenclature and for becoming the Vice President of the French Senate in 1804. Berthollet was the first person to demonstrate the #|bleaching action of chlorine and was first to develop a modern bleach agent, a solution of sodium hypochlorite. He was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences and a chemistry professor at the polytechnic and normal of Paris. He published a standard text on dyeing Eléments de l'art de la teinture. After the French Revolution of 1789 Berthollet was a member of various commissions and in 1795 he became a director of the national mint. He was an atheist.

Berthollet’s main accomplishment was his experimental work in a procedure for bleaching linen, wax, and paper with chlorine and the discovery of hypochlorite, chlorate, and Berthollet salt. Berthollet discovered that the direction of chemical reactions is determined by the condition of the reaction and the mass and properties of the reacting substances. Berthollet believed that the composition of the compounds formed during the process should change continuously. The French chemist J. L. Proust opposed this belief and argued that the substances cited by Berthollet were actually mixtures and not chemical units. The controversy between Berthollet and Proust came to a close with the establishment of the law of definite proportions, which backed the position of the atomic theory in chemistry and concentrated the efforts of scientists on obtaining and investigating compounds of constant composition. IN. S. Kurnakov discovered the existence of the chemically individual substances of variable composition realized by Berthollet. He named them berthollides in memory of Berthollet. This discovery resolved the contradiction between views of Berthollet and Proust. He started his studies at Chambéry and then in Turin where he graduated in medicine. Berthollet great development in works regarding chemistry made him, in a short period of time, an active participant of the Academy of Science in 1780.

Berthollet, along with Antoine Lavoisier and others, devised a chemical nomenclature, or a system of names, which serves as the basis of the modern system of naming chemical compounds. He also carried out research into dyes and bleaches, being first to introduce the use of chlorine gas as a commercial bleach in 1785. He first produced a modern bleaching liquid in 1789 in his laboratory on the #|quay Javel in Paris, France, by passing chlorine gas through a solution of sodium carbonate. Another strong chlorine oxidant and bleach which he investigated was known as and was the first to produce, potassium chlorate, is known as Berthollet's Salt. Bertholett first determined the elemental composition of the gas ammonia, in 1785.

Berthollet was one of the first chemists to recognize the characteristics of a #|reverse reaction, and hence,chemical equilibrium. Berthollet was engaged in a long-term battle with another French chemist Joseph Proust whether the law of divine proportions was valid. Proust believed that chemical compounds are composed of a fixed ratio of their constituent elements irrespective of the methods of production, Berthollet believed that this ratio can change according to the ratio of the reactants initially taken. Even though Proust established his theory by accurate measurements, it was not immediately accepted because of Berthollet's authority. His law was finally accepted when Berzelius confirmed it in 1811. It was later that Berthollet was not completely wrong because there exists a class of compounds that do not obey the law of definite proportions. These non-stoichiometric compounds are also named berthollides in his honor. Berthollet was one of several scientists who went with Napoleon to Egypt, and was a member of the natural history and physics section of the Institut d'Égypte. In 1789 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 1801, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1822.



Left to Right: 1. Chlorine and Potassium. 2. Chlorine Gas. 3 Berthollet Salt. 4. Bleach

Citation:

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/C.+L.+Berthollet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Louis_Berthollet

http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/Web_Genealogy/Info/bertholletcl.pdf

Distraction Pages: http://breakglasstosoundalarm.com/

http://www.sabix.org/bulletin/b24/berthollet.html

http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Berthollet/108630

http://beesbeesbees.com/

http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/