2007-9-19

Svante Arrhenius,Sweden scientist,born at Wick Castle near Uppsala,Sweden on Feb. 19, 1859, studied in Uppsala University when he was 17 years old. Since the commencement in 1878,he served as assistant of Prof. Edlund in Institute of Physics of Swedish Academy. Hence,Arrhenius started his academic study on conductivity of solutions. Directed by Prof. Edlund,he composed his doctor dissertation Study on Conductivity of Electrolyte, brought forward the conception that electrolyte would become dissociative charged particle automatically in aqueous solution. In 1885,he studied abroad in Germany and cooperated with physical chemists Varrt Hoff and Walther Nernst to do research on physical chemistry. He successively made production on ionization theory that was denied for many times. However,he worked with perseverance and had faith in the correctness of ionization theory. Finically, those scientists who doubted his theory before changed their mind and were sincerely convinced to the theory and considered ionization theory as a new important theory in physical chemistry that contributed a lot to the development in physical chemistry. More than great achievements in conductivity, Arrhenius found that carbon dioxide can absorb infrared radiation on the earth's crust during doing research on the influence of carbon dioxide in the air to the earth's crust,and became the earliest researcher of greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide. Arrhenius was elected as the credit member of Germany Electrical Chemistry Academy in 1895; during 1891 and 1905,he assumed the office of professor in University of Giessen;in 1901,he shouldered the academician in Sweden Academy; in 1902, he received Davies Prize of Royal Society,Britain;in 1903,he received the Nobel Prize 1903; in 1911,he was elected as the member of the National Academy of Sciences; since1905,he took up the superintendent of Stockholm Nobel Prize Research Institute till 1927 when he resigned due to his not good health condition. He passed away at the age of 68 on Oct. 2,1927,
The most important contribution Arrhenius made was ionization theory put forward in 1887:electrolyte is the substance that can dissolve in the water to form conductive solution;when these substances dissolve in the water, part of the molecules become ions;the more watery the solution is, the bigger the dissocation degree is. This theory is the great event of physical chemistry during the earlier days and plays a vital role in explanation of solution property. It bridges physics and chemistry (see Arrhenius ionization theory). Arrhenius did wide academic research. In 1998,he put forward the conception of activated molecule and activation heat and deducted chemical reaction rate equation (Arrhenius equation). He also did research about the cause of formation of Solar System and glacier,nature of Comet,aurora borealis,temperature of celestial bodies, and at the same time he did the first chemical explanation to the mechanism of serum therapy. Arrhenius was awarded the Nobel Prize 1903 by his ionization theory and received Davies Prize of Royal Society,Britain. He worked out Astronomy Physics,Immunochemistry, Solution Theory and Quantitative Law in Biochemistry.