Richard abegg chemist biography examples
BookBaeyer, Adolf von; Zott, Regine; Ostwald, Wilhelm; et al. (2002)
Gelehrte im für und wider: Briefwechsel zwischen Adolf v. Baeyer und Wilhelm Ostwald (mit Briefen von und an Victor Meyer) sowie: Briefwechsel zwischen Wilhelm Ostwald und Richard Abegg (mit Briefen oder Briefausschnitten von Fritz Haber und Clara Immerwahr sowie an Svante Arrhenius). (/isis/citation/CBB000771412/)unapi
ArticleJensen, William B. (1984)
Abegg, Lewis, Langmuir, and the octet rule. Journal of Chemical Education (p. 191). (/isis/citation/CBB000019974/)unapi
Who was Richard Abegg?
One of the most interesting developments in the history of chemistry has been the way in which theories of valency have evolved over the years. We are rapidly approaching the centenary of G.N. Lewis’ 1916 article in which he proposed the simple idea that a covalent bond consists of a shared pair of electrons. No doubt there will be celebrations and special issues of various journals that will be motivated by the arrival of this centenary. But as in all celebrations we tend to forget some lesser known contributors who provided important steps towards the eventually adopted theories. Here I would like to recall the work of one of these sub-alterns, the German chemist Richard Abegg.
Abegg had the good fortune of studying and working with Lothar Meyer, Ladenburg, A.W. Hoffman, Ostwald, Arrhenius, and Nernst before his life was tragically cut short at the age of 41 when he died in a ballooning accident. But before this untimely end Abegg provided what was perhaps the most important step in valence theory between the discovery of Mendeleev’s periodic system and G.N. Lewis’ notion of octets of electrons.
After publishing his periodic table in 1969, Mendeleev had noticed that the valences of many elements obeyed an important relationship that has been called his rule of eight. Mendeleev observed that the formulas of hydrides occurred in four forms, namely RH, EH2, RH3, EH4. Meanwhile, with oxygen the following forms are found,
R2O, RO, R2O3, RO2, R2O5, RO3, R2O7, RO4
Mendeleev noted that for no element does the sum of the hydrogen and oxygen equivalences exceed eight.
Oxide RO4 R2O7 RO3 R2O5 RO2
Hydride none RH RH2 RH3 EH4
Significantly, for what is to come, this relationship seems to only apply to elements from just four groups in the periodic table. Mendeleev’s rule remained obscure until In chemistry, Abegg's rule states that the difference between the maximum positive and negative valence of an element is frequently eight. The rule used a historic meaning of valence which resembles the modern concept of oxidation state in which an atom is an electron donor or receiver. Abegg's rule is sometimes referred to as "Abegg’s law of valence and countervalence". In general, for a given chemical element (as sulfur) Abegg's rule states that the sum of the absolute value of its negative valence (such as −2 for sulfur in H2S and its positive valence of maximum value (as +6 for sulfur in H2SO4) is often equal to 8. The concept was formulated in 1904 by German chemist Richard Abegg.Gilbert N. Lewis was one of the first to refer to the concept as "Abegg's rule" when he used it as a basis of argument in a 1916 article to develop his cubical atom theory, which developed into the octet rule. That article helped inspire Linus Pauling to write his 1938 textbook The Nature of the Chemical Bond.Abegg's rule
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April 3 marks the passing of Richard Abegg. Abegg was a German chemist who was one of the early researchers of valence theory. His experiments showed a tendency between the maximum and minimum valence levels of elements differed usually by a value of eight. This relationship became known as Abegg’s rule when Gilbert Lewis proposed his octet rule.
Abegg also discovered the principle behind freezing point depression of solvents. The freezing point is at the transition point between the liquid phase and the solid phase of a liquid. It is determined when the vapor pressures of the liquid and solid phases are equal. Abegg found if a solute was added to the solvent, the freezing point would be depressed to a lower temperature.
Abegg was also an avid enthusiast of ballooning. This hobby would ultimately cause his death when he flew his balloon with an engineer and female relative. When the balloon encountered strong winds, they opened the gas valves to cause the balloon to descend. The balloon managed to reach the ground safely and the other two were able to exit the basket. Abegg was caught as a gust of wind as he exited and was crushed by the basket.
Notable Science History Events for April 3
1973 – First cell phone call made.
Martin Cooper, inventor of the cell phone made the first public cellular telephone call. While working for Motorola, he phoned a rival at AT&T Bell Labs using a 1.1 kg ‘brick’ phone from a corner in New York City.
It would take another 10 years before the Motorola DynaTAC phone would be available to the general public.
1965 – First nuclear power plant in space launched.
NASA and the US Atomic Energy Commission launched the SNAP 10A (Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power) reactor into low Earth orbit. This reactor was the first nuclear power plant operated in space and the only plant launched by the United States. It operated for only 43 days before a faulty voltage regulator shut the reactor core down. T