The legendary life of a chemist is full of many wonderful stories, which reflect the attitude, quality and spirit of scientists. The following are the legendary stories of chemists that I have compiled for you. Everyone is welcome to read.
The legendary story of a chemist Part 1
On August 7, 1990, a white marble bust statue of Hou Debang was completed in Nanjing Chemical Industry Company to commemorate this man who was instrumental in the world's alkali production industry. The development of famous chemists who have made significant contributions and won great honors for China.
Soda ash, chemical name is sodium carbonate, commonly known as soda. It is an important chemical product and is widely used in the manufacture of glass, soap, pulp, detergents and refining petroleum.
Soda ash can exist in nature, but its purity is low and its origins are scattered, which is far from meeting society’s needs for it.
In 1862, the Belgian Suhr was the first to use chemical methods to produce soda ash. The main raw materials for making soda ash are salt and limestone. The basic manufacturing method is: first pass concentrated salt water into saturated ammonia water, and then use the carbon dioxide produced by calcining the limestone to react with the ammoniated saturated brine to generate hydrogen carbonate. ammonium. Ammonium bicarbonate further reacts with table salt to obtain sodium bicarbonate and by-product ammonium chloride. Sodium bicarbonate has low solubility. After separation by filtration and heating, soda ash is obtained and carbon dioxide is released. Carbon dioxide can be reused. Ammonium chloride can react with milk of lime to generate calcium chloride and ammonia gas, and the ammonia gas is collected and recycled.
This alkali production method is called the Solvay method, which has monopolized the world alkali production industry for more than 70 years. The advantages of this method are: the carbon dioxide and ammonia generated by the reaction can be recycled, the process is simple, and the raw materials are easily available. However, it also has two fatal shortcomings: first, the salt utilization rate is too low, only about 70; second, the large amount of calcium chloride generated by the reaction of ammonium chloride and lime milk is of little use, cannot be processed, and even causes environmental pollution. At that time, although chemists in many countries also tried to improve this method, they were unsuccessful.
In October 1921, Hou Debang returned to China from the United States with the ambition to develop the chemical industry of the motherland. He first built the Yongli Alkali Plant in Tanggu and other places. At that time, international capital groups had a monopoly on alkali-making technology. You can imagine the difficulties and resistance they encountered if they wanted to develop their own national alkali-making industry. Hou Debang overcame all kinds of resistance, went deep into the field, practiced by himself, delved deeply into the alkali production technology, constantly solved the problems in equipment and technology, and finally built the alkali plant in 1924. The factory produces 180 tons of white and shiny soda ash per day. The completion of Tanggu Alkali Plant broke through the international monopoly of Solvay Group in technology and defeated the exclusion of Pu Neimen Company in operation. The "Red Triangle" Spring Cocoon produced by this factory won the gold medal at the Philadelphia International Exposition in 1925, bringing glory to the motherland. More importantly, Hou Debang achieved complete mastery and proficiency in soda-making technology by establishing my country's soda-making plant, laying the foundation for innovative soda-making technology. He also published the treatise "Alkali Production" in 1932, which for the first time completely introduced the Solvay method of making alkali. This book is a source of pride for the Chinese nation. It immediately caused a sensation in the chemical industry around the world and is considered by the world to be the first monograph on alkali production.
Science and technology have no limits, and the needs of society and production continue to open up the way forward for science and technology. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Tianjin fell. In 1938, Hou Debang was responsible for establishing a new alkali production plant in Wangtongqiao, Sichuan, mainland China.
However, the raw material used in the Tanggu alkali production plant is sea salt, while well salt is required to build a plant in Sichuan. The brine concentration of well salt is low and the composition is slightly different, so it is no longer suitable to use the Solvay method; in addition, The large amounts of calcium chloride produced by using the Solvay method to make alkali could only accumulate as waste, forcing Hou Debang to explore sexual avenues. At this time, Germany invented a Cha'an soda ash production method. Although the technology is immature, the by-product ammonium ammonia can be produced from alkali production waste liquid, which was a great inspiration to Hou Debang.
Hou Debang also visited Germany to discuss purchasing patents. However, manufacturers were not allowed to visit the site and the conditions for purchasing patents were extremely strict. Hou Debang determined to take the road of innovation.
In order to reform the Solvay alkali production method and create his own new alkali production process, Hou Debang overcame various difficulties and established a laboratory in Hong Kong. Through more than 500 tests, more than 2,000 samples were analyzed and tested. , aiming at the shortcomings of the Solvay method, a new production process was conceived and designed. In order to realize this method and ensure the formation of productivity, he conducted pilot experiments in "isolated islands" in New York and Shanghai concessions, and finally successfully completed all innovations in the new alkali production process in 1940.
The new alkali production method created by Hou Debang combines alkali production and ammonia synthesis, which is often called the combined subtraction method. This method not only retains the advantages of the Solvay method, but also overcomes its shortcomings, making the alkali production method perfect. His main contribution was to add salt instead of milk of lime to the remaining mother liquor containing ammonium chloride after sodium bicarbonate crystallization and filtration. In this way, due to the addition of a large amount of chloride ions to the solution, ammonium chloride will precipitate, and the remaining sodium ions can repeat the previous reaction to generate soda ash. In this way, as long as salt is continuously added to the mother liquor, two important chemical products, soda ash and ammonium chloride (fertilizer), can be obtained at the same time. By using this method to produce soda ash, not only does the utilization rate of raw salt reach over 96, but the entire production can be carried out continuously; in addition, it also has a series of advantages such as saving lime and simple equipment.
Due to Hou Debang's outstanding contribution to the production of soda ash, the method he invented was named "Hou's Alkali Process" by the World Association of Chemical Industry in 1941, and has been widely praised and praised by the domestic and foreign chemical circles. and highly rated.
The "Hou's Alkali Making Method" is an invention named after a Chinese. When our country was deeply bullied by imperialism and was called the "Sick Man of East Asia", a Chinese was named after a Chinese. Being able to shine on the stage of world science and push the history of world alkali production science to a new stage fully demonstrates the wisdom and strength of the Chinese nation. The Legendary Story of a Chemist Part 2
Karl Scholema was born on September 30, 1834, in a family of handicraft workers in Darmstad, Black Forest, Germany. His father, John, was a poor carpenter, and his mother, Lot, was a simple housewife. They had nine children together, and Carl was the eldest child. In 1850, Carl tried to get an education at a vocational school in the city, but by 1853 he dropped out of school due to financial difficulties. He loved chemistry so much that he worked as an apprentice in a pharmacy. Because of his diligence and studiousness, he soon became the pharmacist's right-hand assistant. In 1856, he came to a pharmacy in Heidelberg as a dispensing assistant. At the University of Heidelberg, the famous chemist Bunsen was giving a lecture on chemistry. Scholema tried his best to attend Bunsen's lecture. Bunsen's exquisite experimental demonstrations and vivid reports made Sholema yearn for chemistry more, and at this time he secretly made up his mind. Must be a chemist.
In 1859, relying only on the money he had saved from his own livelihood, he applied for the Chemistry Department of the University of Giessen, chaired by the famous chemist Liebig. This was a holy place that young chemists around the world yearned for. Due to insufficient tuition fees, Sholema left school after only one semester. Fortunately, during this semester, due to his hard work, he completed the analytical chemistry course as the basis of experiments. Through study and training, he basically mastered the skills of chemical experiments. At the same time, during this semester, he also listened to the chemical history course of the famous chemical historian Copp, which initially developed his interest in the history of science. Leaving school and losing his job did not stop Sholeima from pursuing chemical science. At this time, Rothko, a professor of chemistry at Owens College in Manchester, England, was recruiting a private experimental assistant. After hearing the news, Sholeima immediately rushed to the UK, leaving his motherland alone and coming to this industrial city in the UK. After hard work, he finally became Rothko's assistant. Experimental assistant. He is very satisfied here. Firstly, he can continue to study chemistry-related courses, and secondly, he can conduct more chemical experiments independently. From then on, Sholema finally realized his long-cherished wish and entered the door of chemical research.
While self-study and researching, he quickly achieved many results. In 1871, he was exceptionally elected as a member of the Royal Society. In 1874, he became the first professor of organic chemistry at Owens College. He settled in England for more than 30 years until his death in 1892. Chemist’s Legendary Story Part 3
The development of plastics can be traced back to the mid-19th century. At that time, Britain was in order to meet the needs of the booming textile industry. , chemists mixed different chemicals together in the hope of creating bleaches and dyes. Chemists are particularly fond of coal tar, the curdled waste that condenses in the chimneys of factories that burn natural gas.
William Henry Platinum, laboratory assistant at the Royal Institute of Chemistry in London, was one of the people who conducted this experiment. One day, while wiping away chemical reagents spilled on the laboratory bench, Platinum discovered that the rag was dyed a lavender color that was rare at the time. This serendipitous discovery led Platinum into the dyeing industry and eventually made him a millionaire.
Although what Platinum discovered was not plastic, the accidental discovery is significant because it shows that artificial compounds can be obtained by manipulating natural organic materials. Manufacturers have realized that many natural materials such as wood, amber, rubber, glass, etc. are either too rare, too expensive or not elastic enough to be produced on a large scale. Synthetic materials are ideal alternatives because they can change shape under heat and pressure and retain their shape after cooling.
Colin Williamson, founder of the London Plastics History Society, said: At that time, people were faced with finding a cheap alternative that could easily change shape. ?
After platinum, another Englishman, Alexander Parks, mixed chloroform and castor oil to obtain a substance as hard as animal horns. This was the first artificial plastic. Parks hopes to use this man-made plastic to replace rubber that is not widely available due to the expense of growing, harvesting, and processing it.
John Wesley Hyatt, a New Yorker who was a blacksmith, tried to make billiard balls from man-made materials instead of billiard balls made from ivory. Although he did not solve the problem, he discovered that by mixing camphor with a certain amount of solvent, he could obtain a material that could change shape when heated. Hyatt called this material celluloid. This new plastic has the properties of mass production using machines and unskilled workers. It brought the film industry a strong, flexible, transparent material capable of projecting images onto walls.
Celluloid also promoted the development of the home record industry and eventually replaced early cylinder records. Later plastics could be used to make vinyl records, cassette tapes; and finally laser records were made from polycarbonate.
Celluloid made photography an activity with a broad market. Before George Eastman's development of celluloid, photography was an expensive and cumbersome hobby because photographers had to develop their own film. Eastman came up with a new idea: customers would send their finished films to his store, and he would develop the films for them. Celluloid was the first transparent material that could be formed into sheets and rolled up for use in cameras.
About this time, Eastman met a young Belgian immigrant, Leo Baekeland. Baekeland discovered a type of photographic paper that was particularly sensitive to light. Eastman bought Baekeland's invention for $750,000 (equivalent to $2.5 million in today's money). With funds in hand, Baekeland built a laboratory. And invented phenolic plastic in 1907.
This new material has achieved great success. Products made from phenolic plastic include telephones, insulated cables, buttons, aircraft propellers, and billiard balls of excellent quality.
The Parker Pen Company manufactures various fountain pens from phenolic plastic. To prove the strength of phenolic plastic, the company performed a public demonstration by dropping a pen from a high-rise building.
"Time" magazine dedicated a cover article to introduce the inventor of phenolic plastic and this material that can be used thousands of times.
Several years later, DuPont's laboratory also accidentally obtained the Made another breakthrough: nylon, a product called artificial silk. In 1930, Wallace Carothers, a scientist working in a DuPont laboratory, dipped a heated glass rod into long molecular organic compounds and obtained a very elastic material. Although clothes made from early nylon melted under the heat of an iron, its inventor Carothers continued his research, and about eight years later DuPont introduced nylon.
Nylon has been widely used in the field, and supplies such as parachutes and shoelaces are made of nylon. But women are enthusiastic users of nylon. On May 15, 1940, American women snapped up all 5 million pairs of nylon stockings produced by DuPont. Nylon stockings were in short supply, and some merchants began to pass off silk stockings as nylon stockings.
But the success story of nylon had a tragic ending: its inventor Carothers committed suicide by taking cyanide. Steven Fennicell, author of the book "Plastics" said: "The impression I got after reading Carothers's diary is that Carothers had no idea that the material he invented was used to produce women's clothing. Socks was very frustrated. He was an academic and this was too much for him. ?He felt people would think his main achievement was simply to invent a ?mundane commercial product?
While DuPont is reveling in the widespread popularity of its products. The British discovered many military uses for plastic during the war. This discovery was also made by accident. During an unrelated experiment, scientists at the Royal Chemical Industries Laboratory discovered a white waxy precipitate at the bottom of the test tube. After testing, it was found that this substance is an excellent insulating material. Its properties are different from those of glass, and radar waves can pass through it. Scientists call it polyethylene and use it to build houses that protect the radar station from wind and rain, so that the radar can still capture traces of enemy aircraft in rainy and foggy weather conditions.
Williamson of the Plastics History Society said: There are two factors that drive the invention of plastics forward. One factor is the desire to make money, the other is war. ?However, it was the following decades that made plastic truly the hallmark of what Fenichel calls the "century of synthetic materials." In the 1950s, household products such as food containers, water jugs, and soap dishes made of plastic appeared; in the 1960s, inflatable chairs appeared. By the 1970s, environmentalists pointed out that plastics could not degrade on their own. Enthusiasm for plastics has waned.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, plastics further consolidated their position due to the huge demand for plastics in the automobile and computer manufacturing industries. It is impossible to deny the ubiquity of this mundane substance. 50 years ago, the world could only produce tens of thousands of tons of plastic each year; today, the world's annual plastic production exceeds 100 million tons. The U.S. produces more plastics annually than steel, aluminum and copper combined.