Saint Paul University Surigao

Km.3, Brgy.Luna, Surigao City

S.Y. 2009-2010

SCIENCE ELECTIVE 2
(Sci2e-PhyChem)

Submitted by:
CASURRA, Janine Erica
II- St. Peter

Submitted to:
Mrs. Genevieve Lopez
Sci2e-Teacher

Chemist and their Contribution

FOREIGN CHEMIST
 Francis William Aston

With a scholarship from the University of Birmingham he pursued

research in physics following the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity in
the mid-1890s. Aston studied the current through an electronic discharge
tube (a gas-filled tube with electrodes under high vacuum). The research,
conducted with self-made discharge tubes, led him to investigate the
volume of the Crookes dark space now known as Aston dark space. After
the death of his father, and a trip around the world in 1908, he was
appointed lecturer at the University of Birmingham in 1909 but moved to
the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge on the invitation of J. J. Thomson in 1910. Joseph John
Thomson revealed the nature of the cathode ray and then discovered the electron and he was
now doing research on the positively charged "Kanalstrahlen" discovered by Eugen Goldstein in
1886. The method of deflecting particles in the "Kanalstrahlen" by magnetic fields, discovered by
Wilhelm Wien in 1908, and electric fields were used to separate the different ions by their charge
and mass. The first sector field mass spectrometer was the result of these experiments. The ions
followed a parabolic flight path and were recorded on photographic plates from which their exact
mass could be determined by the mass spectrometer. It was speculations about isotopy that
directly gave rise to the building of a mass spectrometer capable of separating the isotopes of the
chemical elements. Aston initially worked on the identification of isotopes of the element neon
and later chlorine and mercury. First World War stalled and delayed his research on providing
experimental proof for the existence of isotopes by mass spectroscopy and during the war Aston
worked at the Royal Airforce Establishment in Farnborough as a Technical Assistant working on
aeronautical coatings. After the war he returned to research at the Cavendish Laboratory in
Cambridge, and completed building his first mass spectrograph (now mass spectrometer) that he
reported on 1919. Subsequent improvements in the instrument led to the development of a
second and third instrument of improved mass resolving power and mass accuracy. These
instruments employing electromagnetic focusing allowed him to identify 212 naturally occurring
isotopes. In 1921, Aston became a fellow of the Royal Society and received the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry the following year. His work on isotopes also led to his formulation of the Whole
Number Rule which states that "the mass of the oxygen isotope being defined [as 16], all the
other isotopes have masses that are very nearly whole numbers," a rule that was used
extensively in the development of nuclear energy. The exact mass of many isotopes was
measured leading to the result that hydrogen has a 1% higher mass than expected by the
average mass of the other elements. Aston speculated about the subatomic energy and the use
of it in 1936. Isotopes and Mass-spectra and Isotopens are his most well-known books.

Emil Abderhalden

Emil Abderhalden (March 9, 1877 – August 5, 1950) was a

Swiss biochemist and physiologist. His main findings, though disputed
already in the 1920s, were not finally rejected until the late 1990s.
 Whether his misleading findings were based on fraud or simply the result
of a lack of scientific rigor remains unclear. Abderhalden's drying pistol,
used in chemistry, was first described by one of his students in a
textbook Abderhalden edited.

Scientific work and controversy

Abderhalden is known for a blood test for pregnancy, a test for cystine in urine, and for
explaining the Abderhalden-Kaufmann-Lignac syndrome, a recessive genetic condition. He did
extensive work in the analysis of proteins, polypeptides, and enzymes. His Abwehrfermente
("defensive enzymes") theory stated that immunological challenge will induce production of
proteases. This was seemingly "proven" by many collaborators in Europe, although attempts to
verify the theory abroad failed. The pregnancy test was determined to be unreliable a few years
after its inception. In late 1912 Abderhalden's "defensive ferments reaction test" was applied to
the differential diagnosis of dementia praecox from other mental diseases and from normals by
Stuttgart psychiatrist August Fauser (1856-1938), and his miraculous claims of success were
soon replicated by researchers in Germany and particularly in the United States. However,
despite the worldwide publicity this "blood test for madness" generated, within a few years the
"Abderhalden-Fauser reaction" was discredited and only a handful of American psychiatric
researchers continued to believe in it. Certainly by 1920 the test was all but forgotten in the USA.
Abderhalden's reputation continued to grow in Germany, however, where collaborators managed
to "replicate" his results, usually by simply repeating experiments until they succeeded and
discarding the negative results. As Abderhalden was seen as the founder of scientific
biochemistry in Germany, questioning his work could harm one's career, as Leonor Michaelis
discovered in the mid-1910s; by 1922, Michaelis' reputation was so tarnished that he had to leave
the country to embark on an outstanding career of scientific success abroad. Otto Westphal later
called Abderhalden's Abwehrfermente work "a fraud from beginning to end". Abderhalden's work
was strongly ideologically slanted: his theory was put to use for human experiments by Otmar von
Verschuer and Josef Mengele to develop a blood test for separating "Aryan" from "non-Aryan"
individuals. While Abderhalden himself did not take part in this work, evidence suggests that he
was instrumental in ideologically streamlining the German Academy of Natural Scientists
Leopoldina by having the Jewish members purged and replaced by Nazi sycophants. Despite of
his theories being rejected as early as the mid-1910s, Abderhalden still loomed large as a kind of
"father figure" in parts of the German scientific community and only by Deichmann and Müller-
Hill's scathing 1998 review, the entire extent of the rejection was revealed. It must be noted,
however, that in Abderhalden's days, the science of immunology was all but non-existent. That
his experiments indeed seemed to "work" on occasion was probably due to immunoprecipitation.
The crucial difference between this and Abderhalden's theory is that the former is an effect of
antibodies, whereas the fictitious Abwehrfermente were presumed to be proteases; a difference
that has large implications for biochemistry and immunology. The most comprehensive analysis
of the issue as to whether Abderhalden was simply grossly mistaken or perpetuated deliberate
fraud can be found in Kaasch.

Leo Baekeland

Leo Hendrik Baekeland (Sint-Martens-Latem (near Ghent),

November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944) was a Belgian chemist who
 invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an
inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic.

The invention of Bakelite

When asked why he entered the field of synthetic resins, Baekeland

answered "to make money". His first objective was to find a replacement for shellac (made from
the excretion of lac beetles). Chemists had begun to recognize that many of the natural resins
and fibers were polymers. Baekeland began to investigate the reactions of phenol and
formaldehyde. He first produced soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called "Novolak" that never
became a market success. He then turned to developing a binder for asbestos, which at that time
was molded with rubber. By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and
formaldehyde, he could produce his dreamed-of hard moldable plastic: bakeliteThe official name
of Bakelite is polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride Baekeland officially announced his
achievement at the February 1909 meeting of the New York section of the American Chemical
Society. In 1922, after patent litigation favorable to Baekeland, the General Bakelite Co., which he
had founded in 1910, along with the Condensite Co. founded by Aylesworth, and the Redmanol
Chemical Products Co. founded by L.V. Redman, were merged into the Bakelite Corporation. The
invention of Bakelite marks the beginning of the Age of Plastics. Bakelite was made from phenol
(then known as carbolic acid) and formaldehyde. These can be mixed, heated, and then either
molded or extruded. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry winning German Adolf von Baeyer had
experimented with this material in 1872, but did not complete its development. Bakelite took the
industry by storm after 1907Bakelite was the first plastic invented that held its shape after being
heated. Radios, telephones and electrical insulators were made of Bakelite because of its
properties of insulationn and heat-resistance. Soon it penetrated nearly all branches of industry.

Ernst Gottfried Fischer

 Ernst Gottfried Fischer (July 17, 1754 – ca 1831) was a German
chemist. He was born in Hoheneiche near Saalfeld. After studying
theology and mathematics at the University of Halle, he was a teacher in
Berlin before becoming Professor of Physics in 1810. He translated
Claude Berthollet's publication Recherches sur les lois de l'affinitié in
1802. He proposed a system of equivalents based on sulfuric acid equal
to one hundred.

Stoichiometry contribution

Jeremias Benjamin Richter's work had little impact until 1802, when it was summarized
by Fischer in terms of tables, such as the one below. According to this table, it takes 615 parts by
weight of magnesia to neutralize either 1000 parts by weight of sulfuric acid or 1405 parts by
weight of nitric acid. In the early literature on the subject, these weights were referred to as
combining weights.

Weights of Acids and Bases that are Chemically Equivalent

Bases Acids
Parts required Parts required to
Name Name
to titrate titrate
Alumina
525 Carbonic acid 577
(aluminium oxide)
Muriatic acid
Magnesia 615 712
(hydrochloric acid)
Lime (calcium
793 Phosphoric acid 979
carbonate)
Calcium hydroxide 793 Oxalic acid 755
Soda (sodium
859 Sulphuric acid 1000
carbonate)
Potash (potassium
1605 Aqua fortis (nitric acid) 1405
carbonate)
Barite (barium
2222 Acetic acid 1480
sulfate)