Berzelius

A definition of catalysis similar to that given above was stated first in about 1895 by Wilhelm Ostwald, whose work on catalysis was recognized with a Nobel prize. Sixty years before, Jakob Berzelius had coined the tenn... 

In 1814, J.J. Berzelius succeeded for the first time in systematically naming chemical substances by building on the results of quantitative analyses and on the definition of the term "element by Lavoisier. In the 19th century, the number of known chemical compounds increased so rapidly that it became essential to classify them, to avoid a complete chaos of trivial names (see Section 2.2.4). 

In 1824 Berzelius, generally credited with the discovery, prepared amorphous silicon by the same general method and purified the product by removing the fluosilicates by repeated washings. Deville in 1854 first prepared crystalline silicon, the second allotropic form of the element. 

L. calx, lime) Though lime was prepared by the Romans in the first century under the name calx, the metal was not discovered until 1808. After learning that Berzelius and Pontin prepared calcium amalgam by electrolyzing lime in mercury, Davy was able to isolate the impure metal. 

Gr. Selene, moon) Discovered by Berzelius in 1817, who found it associated with tellurium, named for the earth. 

L. Ruthenia, Russia) Berzelius and Osann in 1827 examined the residues left after dissolving crude platinum from the Ural mountains in aqua regia. While Berzelius found no unusual metals, Osann thought he found three new metals, one of which he named ruthenium. In 1844 Klaus, generally recognized as the discoverer, showed that Osann s ruthenium oxide was very impure and that it contained a new metal. Klaus obtained 6 g of ruthenium from the portion of crude platinum that is insoluble in aqua regia. 

Cerium was named for the asteroid Ceres, which was discovered in 1801. The element was discovered two years later in 1803 by Klaproth and by Berzelius and Hisinger. In 1875 Hillebrand and Norton prepared the metal. 

Thor, Scandinavian god of war) Discovered by Berzelius in 1828. Much of the internal heat the earth produces has been attributed to thorium and uranium. Because of its atomic weight, valence, etc., it is now considered to be the second member of the actinide series of elements. 

What particularly seemed to excite Wohler and his mentor Berzelius about this experiment had very little to do with vitalism Berzelius was interested m cases m which two clearly different materials had the same elemental composition and he invented the term isomerism to define it The fact that an inorganic compound (ammonium cyanate) of molecular formula CH4N2O could be transformed into an organic compound (urea) of the same molecular formula had an important bearing on the concept of isomerism... 

In the introduction we noted that both Berzelius and Wohler were fascinated by the fact that two different compounds with different properties ammonium cyanate and urea pos sessed exactly the same molecular formula CH4N2O Berzelius had studied examples of similar phenomena earlier and invented the word isomer to describe different compounds that have the same molecular formula... 

Because of their central importance in chemistry, atomic weights have been continually refined and improved since the first tabulations by Dalton (1803 -5). By 1808 Dalton had included 20 elements in his list and these results were substantially extended and improved by Berzelius during the following decades. An illustration of the dramatic and continuing improvement in accuracy and precision during the past 100 y is given in Table 1.3. In 1874 no atomic weight was quoted to better than one part in 200, but by 1903 33 elements had values quoted to one part in 10 and 2 of these (silver and... 

Lithium was recognized as a new alkali metal by J. A. Arfved.son in 1817 whilst he was working as a young assistant in J. J. Berzelius s laboratory. He noted that Li compounds were similar to those of Na and K but that the carbonate and hydroxide were much less soluble... 

J. J. Berzelius classified compounds as organic or inorganic according to their origin in living matter or inanimate material. 

The vitalist theory of Berzelius challenged by F. Wohler faged 28) who synthesized urea, (NH2)2CO. from NHaiOCN),... 

First synthesis of aji organo-P comp iund by J. L. Lassaigne who made alkyl phosphites from H P04 + ROH. T. Graham (who later became the Hrst President of the Chemical Society) classiHed phosphates as ortho, pyro or meta, following J. J. Berzelius s preparation of pyrophosphoric acid by heat. 

Selenium was isolated some 35 y after tellurium and, since the new element resembled tellurium, it was named from the Greek askrivr], selene, the moon. The discovery was made in 1817 by the Swedish chemist J. J. Berzelius (discoverer of Si, Ce and Th) and J. G. Gahn (discoverer of Mn) they observed a reddish-brown deposit during the burning of sulfur obtained from Fahlun copper pyrites, and showed it to be volatile and readily reducible to the new element. 

Fluoride found in fossil ivory and teeth by D. P. Morichini (soon confirmed by J. J. Berzelius who found... 

In 1826 J. J. Berzelius found that acidification of solutions containing both molybdate and phosphate produced a yellow crystalline precipitate. This was the first example of a heteropolyanion and it actually contains the phos-phomolybdate ion, [PMoi204o] , which can be used in the quantitative estimation of phosphate. Since its discovery a host of other heteropolyanions have been prepared, mostly with molybdenum and tungsten but with more than 50 different heteroatoms, which include many non-metals and most transition metals — often in more than one oxidation state. Unless the heteroatom contributes to the colour, the heteropoly-molybdates and -tungstates are generally of varying shades of yellow. The free acids and the salts of small cations are extremely soluble in water but the salts of large cations such as Cs, Ba" and Pb" are usually insoluble. The solid salts are noticeably more stable thermally than are the salts of isopolyanions. Heteropoly compounds have been applied extensively as catalysts in the petrochemicals industry, as precipitants for numerous dyes with which they form lakes and, in the case of the Mo compounds, as flame retardants. 

In 1751 the Swedish mineralogist, A. F. Cronstedt, discovered a heavy mineral from which in 1803 M. H. Klaproth in Germany and, independently, i. i. Berzelius and W. Hisinger in Sweden, isolated what was thought to be a new oxide (or earth ) which was named ceria after the recently discovered asteroid, Ceres. Between 1839 and 1843 this earth, and the previously isolated yttria (p. 944), were shown by the Swedish surgeon C. G. Mosander to be mixtures from which, by 1907, the oxides of Sc, Y, La and the thirteen lanthanides other than Pm were to be isolated. The small village of Ytterby near Stockholm is celebrated in the names of no less than four of these elements (Table 30.1). 

In 1789 M. H. Klaproth examined pitchblende, thought at the time to be a mixed oxide ore of zinc, iron and tungsten, and showed that it contained a new element which he named uranium after the recendy discovered planet, Uranus. Then in 1828 J. J. Berzelius obtained an oxide, from a Norwegian ore now known as thorite he named this thoria after the Scandinavian god of war and, by reduction of its tetrachloride with potassium, isolated the metal thorium. The same method was subsequendy used in 1841 by B. Peligot to effect the first preparation of metallic uranium. 

In 1836 Jons Jakob Berzelius considered eight seemingly unrelated experimental results and concluded that there was a common thread among them. The commonality he defined as catalysis. In doing tliis, Berzelius proposed that a catalytic force was responsible for catalytic action. The concept of catalysis is today considered by most researchers to be due to Berzelius, probably because of the popularity of his annual Handbook of Chemistiywhere he published his definition of catalytic action. For the next one hundred years many referred to the phenomenon as contact catalysis or contact action, as proposed by Mitscherlich. 

Sweden produced a disproportionate number of outstanding chemists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848) determined with amazing accuracy the atomic masses of virtually all the elements known in his time. In his spare time, he invented such modern laboratory tools as the beaker, the flask, the pipet, and the ringstand. 

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