The Birth of Physical Chemistry

VAN'T HOFF, Jacobus Henricus.

Etudes de dynamique chimique.

Amsterdam: Frederik Müller, 1884.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #001720

8vo., [4] [i] ii-iv, [1] 2-214 [2] pp., text wood-engravings. Original publishers wrappers, creased and dust soiled in margins. Upper spine chipped (professionally restored). Provenance: Strychnin specialist Prof. Franz Feist, with his ex-libris on title page. ----

Partington IV, pp. 658-60; Norman 2129. RARE FIRST EDITION, THE BIRTH OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. Groundbreaking publication of Dutch chemist Van 't Hoff. Van't Hoff's treatise on chemical dynamics, in the words of his colleague Arrhenius, "develop[ed] an imposing and harmonious scheme for the whole subject of chemical influences and actions" (Partington IV, p.658). It dealt with reaction velocity, the theory of equilibrium, and the theory of affinity as based on free energy. Van't Hoff classified reaction velocities into unimolecular, bimolecular and multimolecular, wrote the equation for the effect of temperature on the equilibrium constant, and formulated the principle of mobile equilibrium (at constant volume, equilibriums tend to shift in such a direction as to oppose temperature changes imposed on a system) that became the basis of the Van't Hoff-Le Châtelier principle. In 1901 Van't Hoff received the first Nobel Prize in chemistry, in part for his work in chemical dynamics (Norman 2129).

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