Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

Balloon ascent

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (born December 6, 1778 in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat , † May 9, 1850 in Paris ) was a French chemist and physicist . He discovered the uniform thermal expansion of gases ( Gay-Lussac law ). With Alexander von Humboldt, he determined the amount of gas in the electrolysis of water: hydrogen / oxygen = 2/1, as well as the ratio of the amount of gas to the formation of water. He also found that when different gases react, the volume proportions of the individual gases must be in an integer ratio ( law of multiple volumes ). He also developed the first safe method for carrying out elemental analyzes for organic substances, and he also carried out titrimetry (dimensional analysis) for the first time .

Life

Joseph Gay-Lussac's father was a judge and his real name was Antoine Gay, a small estate near where she lived was called Lussac. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac was the eldest child of the family of seven in a small town in the French province of Limousin. In November 1794 he went to Paris; Due to the famine, many students were sent back home to their parents - Gay-Lussac was allowed to stay because of his good math skills. From September 1797 he first attended the Polytechnic ( École Centrale des Travaux publics ) and later the École nationale des ponts et chaussées , where he made the acquaintance of Claude-Louis Berthollet . In 1802 he became a repetitor for chemistry at the École polytechnique and gave lectures in chemistry and a lecture at the Academy of Sciences . He became a member of the Academy in 1806.

Back then, the scientists were interested in the direction of the magnetic needle and the composition of the air in the higher layers of the air. Before that (1804) the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg had already made its first examinations in a balloon. The Institut de France commissioned Gay-Lussac and Jean-Baptiste Biot to take measurements with a balloon.

On August 24, 1804, he and Biot undertook a daring flight in a hydrogen balloon and reached an altitude of 4,000 meters. On this occasion both examined the earth's magnetic field. On September 16, he went on a second balloon ride, this time alone. He took air samples at various altitudes and climbed to 21,600  Paris feet , which is 7,017 meters above the balloon location. Analysis of the samples together with Alexander von Humboldt showed that the oxygen content of the air does not change with altitude (the air becomes thinner overall, but the ratio of the gases remains constant). They were able to measure a temperature decrease of 1 ° C for every 174 meters of elevation gain, and Gay-Lussac and Alexander von Humboldt were also able to refute John Dalton's idea - that atomically heavier gases sink, lighter atomic gases rise, and that the composition changes in the higher atmosphere. Today we know that Dalton's assumption would have the consequence, among other things, that the entire carbon dioxide content of the earth's atmosphere would collect in pure form on the earth's surface, which would suffocate oxygen consumers (e.g. all animals and people). Nevertheless, the chemical composition of the atmosphere actually changes slightly with altitude due to other physical influences; the density of the gases does not matter.

Berthollet founded a private scientific society, the Société d'Arcueil . There Gay-Lussac became acquainted with Pierre-Simon Laplace and Alexander von Humboldt . With this he undertook a research trip (March 1805) to Rome and Naples (to Vesuvius), they spent the winter of 1805/1806 in Berlin. Humboldt has emphasized several times that Gay-Lussac had a lasting influence on his development as a scientist.

1808 Gay-Lussac 1808 was professor of practical chemistry at the École polytechnique in Paris and at the same time professor of physics and chemistry at the Sorbonne . In 1809, together with Louis Jacques Thénard , he was awarded the Galvanic Prize of 3,000 francs, which was given by Napoleon Bonaparte , by the mathematical-physical class of the Institut de France . Gay-Lussac spoke Italian, English and German. He was a member of many official commissions (e.g. Comité consultatif des arts et des manufactures (1805), Conseil de perfectionnement des poudres et des salpêtres (1818)).

Since 1816, Gay-Lussac published the Annales de Chimie et de Physique together with François Arago . In 1818 the French Académie des Sciences announced a competition in which he was a member of the jury headed by Arago. Against the resistance of Siméon Denis Poisson , the winner of the competition was Augustin-Jean Fresnel , who participated with a new type of work on wave optics , which among other things provided the theoretical basis for explaining Poisson spots . 1815 Gay-Lussac became a foreign member of the Royal Society and honorary member ( Honorary Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1829 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg . In 1830 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and in 1832 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . On May 31, 1842 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Prussian order Pour le Mérite for sciences and arts . He had been a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences since 1812 and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences since 1820 .

He married the daughter of an impoverished musician.

Gay-Lussac suffered serious injury in a hydrocarbon explosion. He never got over this accident.

Gay-Lussac died in Paris on May 9, 1850. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Gay-Lussac's grave in Père Lachaise in Paris

Honors

In Paris, a street and a hotel near the Sorbonne are named after him. His name is immortalized on the Eiffel Tower, see list of 72 names on the Eiffel Tower . The lunar crater Gay-Lussac is named after him. The plant genus Gaylussacia Kunth from the heather family (Ericaceae) is named after him.

Scientific work

Physical chemistry

In 1802 he formulated Gay-Lussac's law , according to which gases expand linearly with increasing temperature if the pressure remains constant. The coefficient of the increase in volume, which Gay-Lussac measured for each degree of temperature increase, was 1/266 (actually: 1/273).

According to this law, A. Crawford determined the temperature at which the volume of a gas disappears and came close to absolute zero of the temperature (−273 ° C).

Some well-known scientists ( Amontons , Lambert , Charles ) had already worked on the preliminary work for the Gay-Lussac law, but they had not yet determined the degree of expansion when the temperature increased with sufficient precision. Jacques Alexandre César Charles already noticed a uniform expansion of gases (oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen) in the range between 0 and 100 ° C.

Together with Alexander von Humboldt, Gay-Lussac investigated the volume of hydrogen and oxygen that combine to form water. They found that exactly two parts by volume of hydrogen gas combine with one part by volume of oxygen gas to form water. They also made experiments to determine the composition of the air.

Experiments with other gases led him to the realization that the spatial relationships of atomic gases to compounds are in a simple relationship (law of multiple volumes). According to this law, Amedeo Avogadro developed his hypothesis a little later , which later became Avogadro's law .

The law of multiple volumes led Gay-Lussac to further conclusions. In 1815, Gay-Lussac developed a method for determining vapor densities. Using the vapor densities, it was possible to determine the molecular mass of organic and inorganic compounds. Only the determination of the volume and the weight of a gas produced during the distillation are sufficient to determine the actual weight of an easily evaporable organic molecule by comparison with hydrogen gas. He used this method to determine the molar masses of hydrocyanic acid, ethanol and diethyl ether.

Later (1865) this method was improved by August Wilhelm von Hofmann and Victor Meyer .

In 1807, Gay-Lussac carried out temperature tests with two rooms of the same size, which were connected by a pipe, can be separated off. He evacuated one room with an air pump and then let the gas flow in from the other room. He noted an increase in temperature when the gas flowed in and a decrease in temperature when the gas flowed out. This experiment was carried out in 1845 by James Prescott Joule with better measuring methods, its result went into science as Joule's law and thus laid the foundation for the internal energy of thermodynamics .

Gay-Lussac also determined the heat capacity of gases at constant pressure and constant volume. In 1822 he introduced the general gas constant from the difference . Regnault was later able to determine the difference more precisely, which is why R is also called Regnault's constant . ${\displaystyle R}$ ${\displaystyle C_{p}-C_{v}=R}$

Furthermore, Gay-Lussac dealt with studies on the diffusion of liquids, with the determination of boiling points of two liquids, with the dependence of the solubility and temperature of salts. Gay-Lussac also improved equipment for physical-chemical work (measurement of vapor tension, improved barometer, piston manometer).

Inorganic chemistry

Since 1808, Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard tried to produce pure potassium and sodium from potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide respectively using a voltaic column . In doing so, he sustained a serious eye injury. It took a year before his eyesight was halfway good again.

In 1809, Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard found the amides of potassium and sodium. In 1810 they found the peroxides of potassium and sodium.

Gay-Lussac investigated iodine, discovered by Bernard Courtois in 1811 , and showed that the chemical properties of iodine and chlorine are similar. He discovered hydriodic acid and potassium iodide. He determined the oxidation states of sulphurous acid (1813) and of ions of nitrogen . Together with Thénard, he discovered elemental boron and almost anhydrous hydrofluoric acid in 1808 .

Gay-Lussac was able to show that Lavoisier's thesis that all acids contain oxygen was incorrect. He found that hydrochloric acid gas did not contain any bound oxygen and was able to identify hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulfide as acids. Since the known acids always contained hydrogen, Gay-Lussac introduced the prefix hydro .

Organic chemistry

Together with Thénard, Gay-Lussac developed an apparatus for organic elemental analysis using potassium chlorate as an oxidizing agent. The volume of the gases burned was determined in a mercury tube, the carbon dioxide was bound with potassium hydroxide and then determined.

From 1815 onwards, Gay-Lussac replaced potassium chlorate with copper (I) oxide for elemental analysis . When investigating hydrogen cyanide , which contains nitrogen, he used pure copper for elemental analysis .

Gay-Lussac also determined the chemical composition of hydrogen cyanide (and coined the term simultaneously hydrogen cyanide and cyanide ), cyanogen chloride , ethanol and diethyl ether . He also found the equation of alcoholic fermentation .

In cooperation with Justus von Liebig , Gay-Lussac examines the silver fulminate . In 1828 Gay-Lussac allowed chlorine to act on fats and waxes, he recognized an exchange of hydrogen by chlorine.

Analytical chemistry

Gay-Lussac developed a method for determining alcohol and a volumetric method for determining the silver content. He also introduced dimensional analysis and titration . Chlorimetry (1824) for the determination of chlorine or silver and alkalimetry (1828) were important.

technical chemistry

He developed the Gay-Lussac Tower to collect nitrous gases during sulfuric acid production .

Fonts

• with Louis J. Thénard : Recherches physico-chimiques. 2 volumes. Deterville, Paris 1811, (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 ).

References

1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter G. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 4, 2020 (French). 
2. ^ Marie-Noëlle Bourguet: Le monde dans un carnet. Alexander von Humboldt en Italie (1805) . Le Félin, Paris 2017, ISBN 978-2-86645-581-1 .
3. ↑ Petra Werner : Heaven and Earth. Alexander von Humboldt and his “Kosmos” (= contributions to Alexander von Humboldt research. 24). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-004025-4 , pp. 77-80.
4. ^ Ernest Maindron: Les fondations de prix à l'Académie des sciences. The lauréats de l'Académie. 1714-1880. Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1881, pp. 69-70 .
5. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 24.
6. ↑ Orden Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. The members of the order. Volume 1: 1842-1881. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-7861-6189-5 , p. 42, on the opposite page is his picture with his autograph.
7. ^ Members of the previous academies. Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on March 27, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names. A collection of eponymic, biographical and bibliographical information on honors in the plant world. Extended Edition. Part 1–2. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin - Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 , doi : 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
9. ↑ Mémoire Sur la combination of substances gazeuses, les unes avec les autres. In: Mémoires de physique et de chimie de la Société d'Arcueil . Volume 2, 1809, pp. 207-234 .
10. ↑ Recherches Sur l'acide prussique. In: Annales de Chimie . Volume 95, 1815, pp. 136-251, here p. 184 .
11. ↑ Recherches Sur l'acide prussique. In: Annales de Chimie. Volume 95, 1815, pp. 136-251 .
12. ↑ Lettre de M. Gay-Lussac and M. Clément, Sur l'analyse de l'alcool et de l'éther sulfurique, et sur les produits de la fermentation. In: Annales de Chimie. Volume 95, 1815, pp. 311-318 .
13. ^ Gay-Lussac: Instruction sur l'essai des matières d'argent par la voie humide. Imprimerie Royale, Paris 1832, ( digitized version ).

literature

• Josiane Coyac and Marcel Fetizon (eds.): Guy-Lussac. La carrière et l'oeuvre d'un chimiste français durant la première moitié du XIXe siècle. Actes du colloque Gay-Lussac, 11-13 December, 1978. Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau 1980, ISBN 2-7302-0018-5 (French).
• Maurice Crosland : Gay-Lussac. Scientist et bourgeois. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1978, ISBN 0-521-21979-5 (English).
• Günther Bugge (ed.): The book of the great chemists. Volume 1: From Zosimos to Schönbein. Reprint of the 1929 edition. Verlag Chemie, Weinheim et al. 1974, ISBN 3-527-25021-2 , p. 386 ff.
• Carl Graebe : History of Organic Chemistry. Volume 1. Springer, Berlin et al. 1920.

Web links

Commons : Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in the catalog of the German National Library
• Article by / about Joseph Louis Gay ‐ Lussac in the Polytechnisches Journal
• Entry on Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis (1778–1850) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London