Henry Louis Le Chatelier - Scientific Work

Scientific Work

In chemistry, Le Châtelier is best known for his work on his principle of chemical equilibrium, Le Châtelier's principle and on varying solubility of salts in an ideal solution. He published no fewer than thirty papers on these topics between 1884 and 1914. His results on chemical equilibrium were presented in 1885 at the Académie des sciences in Paris.

Le Châtelier also carried out extensive research on metallurgy and was one of the founders of the technical newspaper "La revue de métallurgie."

Part of Le Châtelier's work was devoted to industry. For example, he was a consulting engineer for a cement company, the Société des chaux et ciments Pavin de Lafarge, today known as Lafarge Cement. His 1887 doctoral thesis was dedicated to the subject of mortars: Recherches expérimentales sur la constitution des mortiers hydrauliques (Experimental Research on the Composition of Hydraulic Mortars).

Le Chatelier in 1901 attempted the direct combination of the two gases at a pressure of 200 atm and 600⁰C in presence of metallic iron . The mixture of gases was forced by an air compressor into a steel Berthelot bomb, where they and the reduced iron catalyst were heated by a platinum spiral. A terrific explosion occurred which nearly killed an assistant. Sometime later Le Chatelier found that the explosion was due to the presence of air in the apparatus used. And’ thus it was left for Haber to succeed where a number of noted French chemists, including Thenard, Sainte Claire Deville and even Berthelot had failed. In less than five years later, Haber and Claude were successful in producing ammonia on a commercial scale, acknowledging that the account of Le Chatelier's failed attempt had accelerated their research. Near the end of his life, Le Chatelier wrote, "I let the discovery of the ammonia synthesis slip through my hands. It was the greatest blunder of my scientific career” . (Edited by Aniket S Waval.- Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India.)