Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand

| image = Portrait of Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand in lund sweden.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1826|10|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = Växjö, Småland, Sweden

| residence =

| nationality = Swedish

| death_date = {{death date and age|1897|11|5|1826|10|20|df=y}}

| death_place = Lund, Sweden

| field = Chemistry

| work_institution = University of Lund

| alma_mater = University of Lund

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| known_for = First isolation of niobium
Enhanced understanding of periodicity
Chain theory of coordination compounds

| prizes =

| religion =

| footnotes =

}}Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand (20 October 1826 – 5 November 1897) was a Swedish mineralogist and chemist. He was a professor at the University of Lund from 1862-1895, where he isolated the element niobium in 1864. He developed an early version of the periodic table and made advances in understanding the chemistry of coordination compounds. Blomstrand published textbooks in chemistry and was well-known internationally for his scientific contributions.{{rp|156}}

Education and career

Blomstrand was born in Växjö, Sweden to his father John Blomstrand, who was a teacher, and his wife Severina Rodhe.{{cite book |title=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography |date=2008 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons (Online edition: Gale In Context)|volume=2|chapter= Blomstrand, Christian Wilhelm |pages=199–200}}

Blomstrand studied mineralogy at the University of Lund, where he earned a philosophy degree in 1850. He then became interested in chemistry and was the first recipient of the Berzelius scholarship. In 1854, he completed his habilitation for research on bromine and iodine compounds of tin.

With the exception of lecturing at the Elementary Technical School of Malmö in 1855 and working as a mineralogist on an expedition to Spitsbergen in 1861,{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PQwTAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA5 | title = House of Commons papers | author1 = House Of Commons, Great Britain. Parliament | year = 1869}}{{cite journal | last1 = Klason | first1 = Peter | title = Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand | journal = Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft | volume = 30 | pages = 3227–3241 | year = 1897 | doi = 10.1002/cber.189703003152 | issue = 3| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1425888 }}

Blomstrand's entire career was at the University of Lund.{{cite journal |last1=Kauffman |first1=George B. |title=Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand (1826–1897) Swedish chemist and mineralogist |journal=Annals of Science |date=1975 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=13–37 |doi=10.1080/00033797500200541 }}

Blomstrand was appointed an adjunct lecturer and laboratory demonstrator in chemistry at the University of Lund in 1856.

He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1861.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

He became a professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Lund in 1862, remaining there until his retirement in 1895.

He served as rector of the university from 1871-1872.{{cite web |last1=Tersmeden |first1=Fredrik |title=Rektoratet vid Lunds universitet - några historiska glimtar |url=https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/ws/files/5498681/5035173.pdf |website=Lund University |accessdate=30 December 2019|date=2015|page=25}}

The elements

File:Niobium crystals 1.jpg

File:Niobium2nb.jpg

Blomstrand's experimental research involved the characterization and analysis of minerals, particularly those which were rare or of unknown composition. These included euxenite, ilmenite, monazite, niobite, and tantalite. He focused on the chemical analysis of what are now known as the group Vb subgroup of Group 5 elements. These "earth acids" include the elements tantalum, niobium, molybdenum, tungsten, and their various mineral associates.

In 1864, Blomstrand was the first person to successfully obtain the element niobium in pure form.{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=James L. Marshall |last2=Marshall |first2=Virginia R. Marshall |title=Rediscovery of the elements: Niobium and Tantalum |journal=The Hexagon |date=2013 |pages=46–51 |url=http://www.chem.unt.edu/~jimm/REDISCOVERY%207-09-2018/Hexagon%20Articles/niobium%20and%20tantalum.pdf |accessdate=8 December 2019}}{{cite journal|title = Tantalsäure, Niobsäure, (Ilmensäure) und Titansäure|journal = Fresenius' Journal of Analytical Chemistry|volume = 5|issue = 1|date = 1866|doi = 10.1007/BF01302537|pages = 384–389|author= Marignac, Blomstrand|author2= Deville, H. |author3= Troost, L. |author4= Hermann, R. |s2cid = 97246260}}{{cite book |last1=Partington |first1=J. R. |title=A History of Chemistry |volume=4 |date=June 18, 1964 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |location=London, Toronto, New York |page=189 |isbn=9781349005543 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1JdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Blomstrand had been studying various metal chlorides, and he identified the oxychloride of niobium, NbOCl₃ as part of this investigation. He then isolated niobium by placing niobium chloride in an atmosphere of hydrogen and heating it. In that way, he obtained pure metallic niobium as a steel-gray material.{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Mary Elvira |title=The discovery of the elements |date=1956 |publisher=Journal of Chemical Education |location=Easton, PA |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftheel002045mbp |edition=6th }}{{rp|343}}{{cite journal | author = Weeks, Mary Elvira |authorlink=Mary Elvira Weeks| title = The discovery of the elements: XVI. The rare earth elements | journal = Journal of Chemical Education | year = 1951 | volume = 9 | issue = 10 | pages = 1751–1773 | doi = 10.1021/ed009p1751 | bibcode=1932JChEd...9.1751W}}

Niobium had previously been discovered in 1801 by English scientist Charles Hatchett, using an ore obtained from the United States. Hackett named the element Columbium, only being renamed Niobium in 1950. However, the element was not obtained in pure form until Blomstrand conducted his investigations.{{cite web |title=Niobium Element Facts |url=https://www.chemicool.com/elements/niobium.html |website=chemicool.com |publisher=Doug Stewart |accessdate=12 January 2020}}

In 1870, Blomstrand proposed a new way of systematizing the elements, a "natural system" based on atomicity (the ability of elements to combine with other elements) and the electrochemical properties of the element. Organizing the elements into subgroups of even and odd atomicity revealed "extraordinary regularities".{{rp|156}}{{cite book |last1=Partington |first1=J. R. |title=A History of Chemistry |volume=4 |date=June 18, 1964 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |location=London, Toronto, New York |page=919 |isbn=9781349005543 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1JdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA919 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

While Blomsrand's system was a significant advance toward developing a periodic table of the elements, it did not account well for metals. Blomstrand included his system in his revised edition of Nils Johan Berlin{{'}}s popular textbook in 1870, and in his own textbooks in 1873 and 1875. Dmitri Mendeleev, later credited with developing the periodic table in widespread use, credited Blomstrand with important early advances leading to the organization of the periodic system.{{cite book |last1=Kaji |first1=Masanori |last2=Kragh |first2=Helge |last3=Palló |first3=Gábor |title=Early responses to the periodic system |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |isbn=9780190200077 |page=156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZz4BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA156 |accessdate=22 February 2019}}

Chemical structure

One of Blomstrand's goals was to develop an understanding of how atoms are bonded together to form compounds and the resulting chemical structures of compounds.{{cite web |last1=Moran |first1=Laurence A. |title=Nobel Laureates: Max Perutz and John Kendrew |url=https://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/nobel-laureates-max-perutz-and-john.html |website=SandWalk |accessdate=14 December 2019 |date=August 1, 2007}}

He attempted to reconcile the dualistic theory of Jöns Jacob Berzelius with unitary and type theories.{{cite web |title=Jöns Jakob Berzelius |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/jons-jakob-berzelius |website=Science History Institute |accessdate=30 December 2019}}

Blomstrand developed the most widely accepted of the 19th century theories of coordination complexes.{{cite book |last1=Halpern |first1=Jack |last2=Kauffman |first2=George B. |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |chapter=Coordination compound |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/coordination-compound |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. |accessdate=14 December 2019|date=August 3, 2018}}

His chain theory (1869) was further developed, modified, and experimentally supported by his colleague Sophus Mads Jørgensen. Jørgensen prepared numerous examples of coordination complexes, providing an experimental foundation for Blomstrand-Jørgensen chain theory and for Alfred Werner{{’}}s coordination theory (1893). In developing the theory, Blomstrand reconciled the low reactivity of the ammonia molecules present in metal ammine complexes by theorizing that the ammonia molecules were chemically linked together in a chain, rendering them chemically unreactive. This chain theory was superseded in 1893, almost 25 years later, when Alfred Werner proposed his coordination theory.

{{blockquote|"It is the important task of the chemist to reproduce faithfully in his own way the elaborate constructions which we call chemical compounds, in the erection of which the atoms serve as building stones, and to determine the number and relative positions of the points of attack at which any atom attaches itself to any other; in short, to determine the distribution of the atoms in space." Blomstrand, Die Chemie der Jetztzeit (Chemistry of Today, 1869)}}

Recognition

The island Blomstrandhalvøya and the glacier Blomstrandbreen on Spitsbergen are named after him.{{cite web |url=http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Blomstrandbreen?ident=1301 |title=Blomstrandbreen (Svalbard) |publisher=Norwegian Polar Institute |accessdate=4 March 2013 |archive-date=28 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228092231/http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Blomstrandbreen?ident=1301 |url-status=dead }}

Representative publications

{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Mm8MAQAAIAAJ | isbn = 978-1-144-80510-2 | title = Die Chemie der Jetztzeit: vom Standpunkte der electrochemischen Auffassung, aus Berzelius Lehre entwickelt | author1 = Blomstrand, Kristian Vilhelm | year = 1869}}
{{cite journal | last1 = Kemper | first1 = R. | title = Die Chemie der Jetztzeit vom Standpunkte der elektrochemischen Auffassung aus Berzelius Lehre entwickelt von C. W. Blomstrand. XIV. u. 417 S. Heidelberg, Carl Winter 1869 | journal = Archiv der Pharmazie | volume = 189 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 173–175 | year = 1869 | doi = 10.1002/ardp.18691890162| s2cid = 97036099 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1424549 }}