Claude Louis Berthollet

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Claude Louis Berthollet (December 9, 1748 – November 6, 1822) was a Savoyard chemist who "became vice president of the French Senate in 1804."^[1]

[edit] Biography

Claude Louis Berthollet was born in Talloires, near Annecy, Savoy in 1749.

Berthollet, along with Antoine Lavoisier and others, devised a chemical nomenclature, or a system of names, which serves as the basis of the modern system of naming chemical compounds. He also carried out research into dyes and bleaches (introducing the use of chlorine as a bleach) and determined the composition of ammonia. Berthollet was one of the first chemists to recognize the characteristics of a reverse reaction, and hence, chemical equilibrium. Potassium chlorate (KClO₃), a strong oxidizer, is known as Berthollet's Salt. Non-stoichiometric compounds are also named berthollides in his honor.

Berthollet was one of several scientists who went with Napoleon to Egypt.

He died in Arcueil, France in 1822.

[edit] References

1. ^ R. Po-chia Hsia, Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith, The Making of the West, Peoples and Culture, A Concise History, Volume II: Since 1340, Second Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007), 685.

[edit] Further reading

Satish, Kapoor (1970-80). "Berthollet, Claude Louis". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 73-82. ISBN 0684101149.