Jean Barriols Theoretical Chemistry

If one considers theory to be at the opposite side of experiment, then Barriol was not a theoretical chemist. Was he, in these conditions, a physical chemist It is within the area of physical chemistry that our laboratory took the occasion to perform the most significant advances said Barriol, modestly. As a matter of fact, most papers were published in the Journal de Chimie Physique and the notes in the Academie des Sciences were mostly read in the physical chemistry section. Like Bauer, Barriol was interested in the theoretical aspects of physical chemistry. But, more generally, he can be considered as a kind of generalist, working at the center of the chemist s preoccupations - the structure of molecules and the nature of their interactions -who dominated general questions of fundamental chemistry, who could go ahead, rather far, in specialized directions of high interest, who was able to distribute problems to more specialized disciplines and, vice versa, to think about the responses. 

More than just a scientist working at the borderlines of many disciplines, Barriol has to be seen as being in the classical tradition that makes theoretical chemistry a central discipline in which other disciplines have their roots it takes into account all the various properties and unifies them inside the frame of a theoretical explana- 

If the activities of the laboratory in this field are said to be at the borders of quantum chemistry and statistical thermodynamics, these two disciplines are declared to be techniques. The problems raised by molecular liquids and solvent effects can be solved, or at least simplified by these techniques. This is firmly stated everywhere the method of calculation of molecular orbitals for the o-bonds was developed in the laboratory (Rinaldi, 1969), for instance, by giving some indications about the configuration of a molecule. The value and direction of a dipolar moment constitutes a properly quantum chemistry method to be applied to the advancing of the essential problems in the laboratory. In the same way, statistical mechanics or statistical thermodynamics constitute methods that were elaborated to render an account of the systems studied by chemists and physicists. In Elements de Mecanique Statistique, these methods are well said to constitute the second step, the first step being taken by quantum chemistry that studies the stuctures and properties of the constitutive particles. [53] 

But what is perhaps more interesting is that, at the time of his most important activity, Barriol enumerated the techniques used in the theoretical laboratory of Nancy to solve the problem of three-dimensional structural studies on isolated molecules, static studies on associated solutions, and dynamic studies of associations. They were five techniques explicitly mentioned by Barriol, four experimental and one theoretical. Theoretical calculations are situated on the same level as the four experimental techniques, which included dielectric polarization, nuclear magnetic resonance, microwave spectrography, and dielectric relaxation. [54] 

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Karachalios chapter shows the fine structure and the local character of knowledge production as well as its dependence on information exchange, and the same can be said of the contribution from Blondel-Megrelis. The career of Jean Barriol after the war and the establishment of the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory at Nancy extends the story to the period after World War II and expands it to include France. As with Bonino, Barriol regarded the interplay of theory and experiment as of utmost importance for a fruitful development of theoretical chemistry. Although after 1945 the scientific contacts of France with its allies were quite strong, illustrated by the fact that the first conference on quantum chemistry after the war was held in Paris in 1948, the establishment of Barriol s laboratory was closely connected to French... 

Between Disciplines jean Barriol and the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory in Nancy... 

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