Beketov, Nikolai Nikolaevich

(b. Alferevka village, Penzensky district, Russia, 13 January 1827; d. St. Petersburg [now Leningrad], Russia, 13 December 1911)

chemistry.

Beketov graduated from Kazan University in 1849 and then worked in Zinin’s laboratory at the Academy of Medicine and Surgery in St. Petersburg. In 1855 he became a junior scientific assistant at Kharkov University, and from 1859 to 1886 he was professor of chemistry. In 1864 Beketov organized the department of chemistry and physics at Kharkov, with laboratory work in physical chemistry, and taught a course in physical chemistry. He was elected a member of the Peterburg Academy of Science in 1886.

Under Zinin’s influence Beketov began his scientific activity with work in organic chemistry, studying esterification reactions. In his master’s thesis (1853) he further developed the concepts of basicity and affinity, which had been worked out by C. F. Gerhardt and his followers. In Beketov’s work one can find the sources of the study of “chemical value,” which was later developed by the Butlerov school.

Beketov’s later interests were physical and inorganic chemistry. As a result of his studies of the liberation of certain metals by hydrogen and by other metals, Beketov established an activity series of metals, demonstrating that the process of reduction is associated with the formation of galvanic pairs. In order to promote concentration of the reagent, Beketov subjected the hydrogen to pressures of 100 atmospheres and higher. “This action of hydrogen,” he wrote, “depends on the gas pressure and the concentration of the metal [in acids], or in other words, depends on the chemical mass of the reducing body.” In this work he closely approached the law of mass action and also studied the reversibility of the reaction:

(CH₃COO)₂Ca + CO₂ + H₂O ⇄ 2CH₃COOH + CaCO₃

The results of all these investigations were stated in his doctoral dissertation (1865).

Beketov later discovered and substantiated the theoretical possibility that metals could be reduced from their oxides by using aluminum, thus opening the way to the creation of the method of alumino-thermal reduction. His constant interest in the theory of chemical affinity led to a large series of thermo-chemical researches, begun in Kharkov and continued in St. Petersburg. Specifically, Beketov determined the heats of formation and hydration of the oxides of the alkali metals. Beketov established that the heats of formation of chlorides, bromides, iodides, and oxides are in parallel with the compression taking place during the reactions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Original Works. Beketov’s writings include O nekotorykh novykh sluchayakh khimicheskogo sochetania i obshchie zamechania ob etikh yavleniakh (“On Several New Cases of Chemical Combination and General Remarks About These Occurrences” St. Petersburg, 1853); Issledovania nad yavleniami vytesnenia odnikh elementov drugimi (“Researches Into the Occurrences of Liberation of Certain Elements by Other Elements”; Kharkov, 1865); “Recherches sur la formation et les properiétés de l’oxyde de sodium anhydre,” in Memoires de l’ Académie des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, 7th ser., 30 , no. 2 (1881), 1-16; Dinamicheskaya storona khmicheskikh yavleny (“Dynamic Site of Chemical Phenomena”; Kharkov, 1886); “De quelques propriétés physico-chimiques de sets haloïdes du césium,” in Bulletin de l’Académie des sciences de St. Péterbourg, n.s., 4 (1894), 197-199; Rechi khimika 1862-1903(“Speeches of a Chemist 1862-1903“St. Petersburg, 1908); and N. A. Izmailov, ed., Izbrannie proizvedenia po fizicheskoy khimy(“Selected Works on Physical Chemistry” Kharkov, 1955), with a bibliography of his scientific works.

II. Secondary Literature. Works on Beketov are A. I. Belyaev, Nikolai Nikolaevich Bekatov—vydayushchuiysya russky fiziko-khimik i metallurg, 1827–1911 (“Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov—Prominent Russian Physical Chemist and Metallurgist”; Moscow, 1953), with a bibliography of Beketov’ works, and Y.I. Turchenko, Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov (Moscow, 1954), which includes a list of Beketov’s works and literature on him.

G. V. Bykov