And Walther Nernst

Haber informed the Margulies brothers of his disappointing findings, published them in a scientific journal, and went on to other things. And that might have been the end of the matter, had it not been for the antagonism between Fritz Haber and Walther Nernst. 

Potentiometry—the measurement of electric potentials in electrochemical cells—is probably one of the oldest methods of chemical analysis still in wide use. The early, essentially qualitative, work of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) and Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) had its first fruit in the work of J. Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) and Walther Nernst (1864-1941), who laid the foundations for the treatment of electrochemical equilibria and electrode potentials. The early analytical applications of potentiometry were essentially to detect the endpoints of titrations. More extensive use of direct potentiometric methods came after Haber developed the glass electrode for pH measurements in 1909. In recent years, several new classes of ion-selective sensors have been introduced, beginning with glass electrodes more or less selectively responsive to other univalent cations (Na, NH ", etc.). Now, solid-state crystalline electrodes for ions such as F , Ag", and sulfide, and liquid ion-exchange membrane electrodes responsive to many simple and complex ions—Ca , BF4", CIO "—provide the chemist with electrochemical probes responsive to a wide variety of ionic species. 

Robert Bunsen is rightfully acknowledged as the harbinger of modem analysis, but much of the discipline s distinctive scientific character was provided by Wilhelm Ostwald (II] building on the activities of J. H. van t Hoff and Walther Nernst. 

Einstein, A. (1942). The Work and Personality of Walther Nernst, Scientific Monthly, February, p, 195. 

This relationship is known as the Nernst equation, after Walther Nernst (1864-1941), a brilliant and egocentric colleague of Arrhenius, who first proposed it in 1888. Recalling that, at 25°C, the quantity RT/F is 0.0257 V,... 

With his team organized, Haber began looking at the problem in its simplest form—at normal atmospheric pressure. After publishing some preliminary results, Haber met Walther Nernst at a scientific conference in Hamburg. Nernst, who was only four years older than Haber, had a pugnacious personality that made him quarrel with almost everyone in academia. Worried that Haber s work cast doubt on the validity of his new law of thermodynamics, Nernst publicly ridiculed Haber s highly erroneous data and told him scornfully to do his homework. ... 

Erwin N. Hiebert. Walther Nernst and the Application of Physics to Chemistry. In Springs of Scientific Creativity Essays on Founders of Modem Science, Rutherford Aris et al., eds. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1983, pp. 203-231. Source for Nernst s fight with Haber. 

K. Mendelssohn. The World of Walther Nernst. The Rise and Fall of German Science... 

Physics in Brussels, his aim was to further the "progress of physics and physical chemistry." Jagdish Mehra has speculated that the emphasis on physical chemistry was cosmetic, rather than real, in order to honor Walther Nernst,52 but this seems unlikely. Like many industrialists, Solvay viewed the problems studied by physical chemists to have value for industrial production, especially with respect to the metallurgy of alloys and to industrial electrochemistry. 53 The Solvay Company contributed half a million francs for the building of the Institute of Electrotechology at Nancy, which opened in 1900 facing the Chemical Institute. 54... 

See Barkan, "Walther Nernst," 4160, analyzing Wilhelm Ostwald, Elektrochemie Walther Nernst, Die Ziele der physikalischen Chemie (Gottingen Vandenhoek Ruprecht, 1896) Pierre Duhem, "Une science nouvelle La chimie physique" and Jacobus Henri cus van t Hoff, Physical Chemistry in the Service of the Sciences, trans. Alexander Smith (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1903). 

See Walther Nernst, "Die elektrolytische Zersetzung wassriger Losungen," Berichte 30 (1897) 1563 also in Theoretical Chemistry, 390392 discussed in G. V. Bykov, "Historical Sketch of the Electron Theories of Organic Chemistry," Chymia X (1965) 199253, on 201 and Anthony N. Stranges, Electrons and Valence. Development of the Theory, 19001925 (College Station Texas A M University Press, 1982) 7780. 

See Barkan, "Walther Nernst," 140 and 172, citing the Theoretische Chemie, 7th ed. (Stuttgart Ferdinand Enke, 1913), quotation on 470. 

Wilhelm Ostwald, Elektrochemie (1896). See the discussion in Barkan, "Walther Nernst," 4445. Ostwald s first chemical researches concerned chemical affinities from these studies he went on to investigate electrolytic dissociation, electrical conductivity, mass action, reaction velocities, and catalysis. It was for work on catalysis that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1909. 

Barkan, Diana Kormos. "Walther Nernst and the Transition to Modem Physical Chemistry." Ph.D. dissertation. Harvard University, 1990. 

Volmer held the prestigious chair of physical chemistry at the University of Berlin. That chair had previously been held by the great Walther Nernst, whose work led to the third law of thermodynamics. In his years in Berlin, Volmer was best known for his early contributions to models for crystal growth, both under chemical and electrochemical conditions. 

This formula was first derived by the German chemist Walther Nernst and is widely used to estimate the potential difference of cells. It is also used in biology to estimate the potential difference across biological cell membranes, such as those of neurons. 

About the same time that Haber was making his measurements, Walther Nernst also studied the ammonia synthesis reaction at high temperatures and obtained results that differed significantly from those obtained by Haber.2 Nernst s measurements were made at high pressures (approximately 60 atm). His results are also shown in Figure 15.3, and they do not appear to differ in a major way from those of Haber, until the effect of pressure is taken into account, as we will now see. From equation (15.12), we find that Kx is related to K by... 

D. Barkan, Walther Nernst and the Transition to Modern Physical Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. 

In May 1925, at last, the X-ray measurements seemed to indicate the presence of both elements 43 and 75. The first mention of the discovery was made at a very high level, at a meeting of the Preujiische Akademie der Wissenschaften, thanks to Walther Nernst who had been Walter Noddack s mentor. [17] The results were published in the prestigious journal Die Naturwissenschaften soon after, in a two-fold contribution. A first section of the paper is devoted to the analytical and geochemical part of the investigation, whereas the second section deals exclusively with the X-ray spectroscopy, [18] and Ida co-authors both contributions. In Walter s and Ida s mind however, the quest was not yet finished. Walter Noddack publicly declared that the crucial point to assess the existence of these two new elements was to produce samples and to hand them over to colleagues. [19]... 

From about 1915, a new generation of scientists attempted to use the new physics to understand how elements were formed and why the stars shine. In this work, and especially with regard to the question of element formation, chemists played a role that for a period was as important as that played by physicists and astronomers. Several leading physical chemists, including Svante Arrhenius, Walther Nernst, Jean Perrin, and William Harkins, were interested in astronomy and cosmology and contributed to the new phase of astrochemistry. However, they worked individually and independently, and their research formed neither a recognized subdiscipline nor the nucleus of a scientific subcommunity. [21]... 

Refs. [i] Nobel lectures, chemistry 1901-1921 (1966). Elsevier, Amsterdam [ii] Medelssohn K (1973) The world of Walther Nernst. The rise and fall of German science. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh [iii] Barkan D (1999) Walther Nernst and the transition to modernphys-ical science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge... 

Nernst equation An equation that correlates chemical energy and the electric potential of a galvanic cell or battery. Links the actual reversible potential of an electrode (measured in volts), E, at nonstandard conditions of concentration or pressure, to the standard reversible potential of the electrode couple, EO, which is a thermodynamic value. The Nernst equation is named after the German physical chemist Walther Nernst. 

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