Electrolytic dissociation theory and Arrhenius acid-base definition
Teoría de la disociación electrolítica y definición ácido-base de Arrhenius
- Date
- 1884-1887 · confidence high
- Place
- Uppsala, Sweden
- Credited to
- Svante Arrhenius
- People
- 👤 Svante August Arrhenius1859–1927
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Electrolytes dissociate into ions on dissolving in water, which explains conductivity and colligative properties; acids release H+ and bases OH-. Together with Ostwald and van 't Hoff, it founds physical chemistry as a discipline.
His 1884 thesis was given the lowest possible pass mark; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903.
What it led to
- Chemistry of solutions
- pH scale
- Modern electrochemistry
- Later acid-base theories
Built on
- Faraday's laws of electrolysis1833-1834
- Faraday's laws
- Van't Hoff's osmotic pressure
Made possible
- Nernst equation1889
- pH scale1909
- Brønsted-Lowry and Lewis acid-base theories1923
- conductometry
- reference electrodes