Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff

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Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
Dutch chemist
Born	August 30, 1852 Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died	March 1, 1911 Steglitz, Berlin, Germany

Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (August 30, 1852 - March 1, 1911) was a Dutch physical and organic chemist and the winner of the inaugural Nobel Prize in chemistry. His research on chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium, osmotic pressure and crystallography is credited to be his major work. Van 't Hoff helped to found the discipline of physical chemistry as we know it today.

Early days

He was born in Rotterdam, the son of a medical doctor. From a young age he was interested in science and nature; he frequently took part in botanical excursions, and his receptiveness for philosophy and his predilection for poetry were already apparent in his early school years. (Lord Byron was his idol.)

His early education was taken in the Realschule in Rotterdam. When he was 17, against the wishes of his father, he went to study chemistry at the Delft Polytechnic Institute. He completed the three year course there in two eyars, and when he was 19, he enrolled at the University of Leiden, remaining there for a year, after which studied inBonn, Germany with Friedrich Kekulé), then in Paris with C. A. Wurtz). He returned to Holland, finally receiving his doctorate at the University of Utrecht in 1874 at age 22. It was while he was at Utrecht that he created an upheaval in chemistry by proposing a three dimensional model for the structure of a class of carbon compounds. He later expanded this idea to account for optically active carbon compounds that affect a beam of light passing through them in a characteristic way. These discoveries opened the way for the new science of stereochemistry, which studies the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in a chemical compound.

In 1876, Van't Hoff went to Utrecht to teach physics at the veterinary college there. In 1877, he lectured at the University of Amsterdam, and became a full professor there the following year, a post he would retain until 1896. In 1878 Van 't Hoff married Johanna Francina Mees. They had two daughters, Johanna Francina (b. 1880) and Aleida Jacoba (b. 1882), and two sons, Jacobus Hendricus (b. 1883) and Govert Jacob (b. 1889).

In 1896, he was invited to take a professorship at the University of Berlin, where he was elected into the membership of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. In Berlin his teaching duties only required him to lecture once a week. The rest of his time was spent at a research facility provided by the academy.

Contributions to chemistry and major works

Van't Hoff in 1900s.

Before receiving his doctorate, van 't Hoff had already published the first of his important contributions to organic chemistry. In 1874 he accounted for the phenomenon of optical activity by assuming that the chemical bonds between carbon atoms and their neighbors were directed towards the corners of a regular tetrahedron. This three-dimensional structure perfectly accounted for the isomers found in nature (stereochemistry). He shares credit for this idea with the French chemist Joseph Le Bel, who independently came up with the same idea.

In 1884, van 't Hoff published his research on chemical kinetics, naming it Studies in Chemical Dynamics. In this work, he shows the relationship between the concentration of compounds in a chemical reaction and the rate at which the reaction proceeds. He was also able to show how the science of thermodynamics can be applied to chemical equilibrium, where a chemical reaction that proceeds in two directions comes to a standstill. Van't Hoff also discusses the speed of a chemical reaction in its relation to temperature.

In 1886, he showed a similarity between the behaviour of dilute solutions and gases. Until 1895 he worked on Svante Arrhenius's theory of the dissociation of electrolytes. On 1896 he became professor to the Prussian Academy of Science at Berlin. His studies of the salt deposits at Stassfurt contributed to Prussia's chemical industry. In 1887 he and German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald founded an influential scientific magazine named Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie ("Journal of Physical Chemistry").

Winner of the inaugural Nobel Prize in chemistry

File:J.H. van 't Hoff.gif

Van 't Hoff in the 1900s at the height of his career.

Van 't Hoff became a lecturer in chemistry and physics at the Veterinary College in Utrecht. He then became a professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at the University of Amsterdam for almost 18 years before eventually becoming the chairman of the chemistry department. In 1896, van 't Hoff moved to Germany where he finished his career at the University of Berlin in 1911. In 1901 he received the first Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with solutions. This can generally be summarized by stating that very dilute solutions follow mathematical laws that closely resemble the laws describing the behavior of gases.

Final days, awards and legacy

In 1885 he was appointed member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Other distinctions included the honorary doctorates of Harvard and Yale 1901, Victoria University, Manchester 1903, Heidelberg 1908; the Davy Medal of the Royal Society 1893 (along with Le Bel), Helmholtz Medal of the Prussian Academy of Sciences 1911; he was also appointed Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur 1894, Senator der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (1911). Van't Hoff was also honorary member of the British Chemical Society in London, the Royal Academy of Sciences, in Göttingen 1892, American Chemical Society 1898, and the Académie des Sciences, in Paris 1905.

He was indeed a prominent scientist of its time. Of his numerous distinctions, he regarded his winning of the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry as the culmination of his career.

Van 't Hoff died at the age of 58, on March 1, 1911, at Steglitz near Berlin.

See also

• Van 't Hoff factor
• Van't Hoff equation
• Wilhelm Ostwald

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• H.A.M. Snelders, Hoff, Jacobus Henricus van 't (1852-1911), in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland.
• Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff. Recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions. Retrieved September 18, 2005.
• Museum Boerhaave Negen Nederlandse Nobelprijswinnaars

External links

• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1901. Retrieved May 3, 2007.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Laureates (1901-1925)

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