Scribd
Upload
68 views2 pages

Solvay Process: Key Concepts Explained

Reversible reactions can go in both directions, from reactants to products and vice versa. Claude-Louis Berthollet first discovered the concept of reversible reactions while accompanying Napoleon on his Egyptian campaign in 1798. Berthollet noticed sodium carbonate deposits around salt lakes in Egypt and realized the deposits must have formed from the reverse of the reaction between sodium carbonate and calcium chloride, due to the high salt concentrations in the evaporating waters. This challenged the prevailing view that reactions only proceed in one direction and established Berthollet as the founder of the concept of reversible chemical reactions.

Uploaded by

gAARa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
68 views2 pages

Solvay Process: Key Concepts Explained

Reversible reactions can go in both directions, from reactants to products and vice versa. Claude-Louis Berthollet first discovered the concept of reversible reactions while accompanying Napoleon on his Egyptian campaign in 1798. Berthollet noticed sodium carbonate deposits around salt lakes in Egypt and realized the deposits must have formed from the reverse of the reaction between sodium carbonate and calcium chloride, due to the high salt concentrations in the evaporating waters. This challenged the prevailing view that reactions only proceed in one direction and established Berthollet as the founder of the concept of reversible chemical reactions.

Uploaded by

gAARa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Capiz National HIghshool

Report in
Chemistry IV

Reversible Reaction
Reporter: Martina Faderugao
What are reversible reactions?
Reversible reactions occur when the backwards reaction (products reactants) takes place
relatively easily under certain conditions. The products turn back into the reactants.
For example, during a reversible reaction reactants A
and B react to make products C and D.

A +B C +D
(reactants)
(products)

However, products C and D can also undergo the


reverse reaction, and react together to form reactants A
and B.

Berthollet, Claude-Louis
born Dec. 9, 1748, Talloires, Savoy, France
died Nov. 6, 1822, Arcueil
We can thank Napoleon for bringing the concept of reaction reversibility to Chemistry.
Napoleon recruited the eminent French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet (1748-1822) to
accompany him as scientific advisor on the most far-flung of his campaigns, the expedition
into Egypt in 1798. Once in Egypt, Berthollet noticed deposits of sodium carbonate around
the edges of some the salt lakes found there. He was already familiar with the reaction

Na2CO3 + CaCl2 CaCO3 + 2 NaCl


This was known to proceed to completion in the laboratory. He immediately realized that the
Na2CO3 must have been formed by the reverse of this process brought about by the very
high concentration of salt in the slowly-evaporating waters. This led Berthollet to question
the belief of the time that a reaction could only proceed in a single direction. His famous
textbook Essai de statique chimique (1803) presented his speculations on chemical affinity
and his discovery that an excess of the product of a reaction could drive it in the reverse
direction.
Unfortunately, Berthollet got a bit carried away by the idea that a reaction could be
influenced by the amounts of substances present, and maintained that the same
should be true for the compositions of individual compounds. This brought him into
conflict with the recently accepted Law of Definite Proportions (that a compound is
made up of fixed numbers of its constituent atoms), so his ideas (the good along with the bad) were

promptly discredited and remained largely forgotten for 50 years. (Ironically, it is now known that
certain classes of compounds do in fact exhibit variable composition of the kind that Berthollet
envisioned./)

You might also like