Claude-Louis Berthollet
| Claude Louis Berthollet | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
9 December 1748 Talloires, France |
| Died | 6 November 1822 (aged 73) Arcueil, France |
| Residence | France |
| Nationality | Savoyard-French |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | Academy of Science |
| Alma mater | Chambéry, Turin |
Claude Louis Berthollet (9 December 1748 in Talloires, France – 6 November 1822 in Arcueil, France) was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804. He is known for his scientific contributions to theory of chemical equilibria via the mechanism of reverse chemical reactions, and for his contribution to modern chemical nomenclature. On a practical basis, Berthollet was the first to demonstrate the bleaching action of chlorine gas, and was first to develop a solution of sodium hypochlorite as a modern bleaching agent.
Claude Louis Berthollet was born in Talloires, near Annecy, then part of the Duchy of Savoy, in 1749.
He started his studies at Chambéry and then in Turin where he graduated in medicine. Berthollet's great new developments in works regarding chemistry made him, in a short period of time, an active participant of the Academy of Science in 1780.
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, being first to introduce the use of chlorine gas as a commercial bleach in 1785. He first produced a modern bleaching liquid in 1789 in his laboratory on the quay Javel in Paris, France, by passing chlorine gas through a solution of sodium carbonate. The resulting liquid, known as "Eau de Javel" ("Javel water"), was a weak solution of sodium hypochlorite. Another strong chlorine oxidant and bleach which he investigated and was the first to produce, potassium chlorate (KClO3), is known as Berthollet's Salt.
Berthollet first determined the elemental composition of the gas ammonia, in 1785.
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