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Svante Arrhenius
1859–1927 · Sweden · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1903
Proposed the theory of electrolytic dissociation and the Arrhenius equation for the temperature dependence of reaction rates.
Nobel Prize work
Nobel 1903 “in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation.” Arrhenius argued that salts, acids and bases split into ions already when dissolved in water, without any electric current — a claim that explained why their solutions conduct and why colligative effects exceed expectations via the van ’t Hoff factor . The theory united electrochemistry, osmotic pressure and acid–base chemistry into one framework.
Fields
Related topics
Electrolytes, pH, buffer solutions
How dissolved ions conduct electricity, how acid–base equilibria set pH, and how conjugate pairs resist pH change in a buffer.
Activation energy, Arrhenius equation
Why reactions speed up when heated, and how the height of an energy barrier controls the rate.