February In Chemistry

February in Chemistry
written and compiled by Anthony Hardwicke, RSC Schoolteacher Fellow
This is for teachers at schools and colleges with electronic daily information screens. Download this PowerPoint, then cut and paste each page into your information PowerPoint.

Today in Chemistry
On February 1st 1974, secret papers were released, discussing the manufacture of VX gas at the Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire. VX gas is the most powerful nerve gas known. Its chemical name is ethyl-S-2-
diisopropyl-
aminoethyl-
methyl-
phosphono-
thiolate.

Today in Chemistry
On February 2nd 1923, leaded petrol was first marketed in the USA. Thomas Midgleydiscovered that adding lead tetraethyl to petrol made it burn much more smoothly. About 25 years ago, doctors noticed a link between lead (from leaded petrol) and brain damage in young children. Most petrol sold today is therefore unleaded. Midgley also synthesised dichlorofluoroethane, the first of the chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), which are now known to damage the ozone layer.

Today in Chemistry
On February 3rd 1893, Leonora Bilger, was born. She was the first to synthesise asymmetric nitrogen compounds.

Today in Chemistry
Roy Plunkett of the chemical company Du Pont patented Teflon on February 4th 1941. The real chemical name for Teflon is poly(tetrafluoroethene) and it is thought to be the most slippery substance in the world. It is used to coat non-stick frying pans.

On February 5th 1840 the Scottish vet John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tyre, was born. He sold the patent and company name early on and as
a result, did not
make as much
money as he
could have done
from his
invention.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
In 1869, Mendeleev’s first Periodic Table contained a few gaps. Not only did Mendeleev forecast that these missing elements would soon be discovered, he boldly predicted what properties they would have too. Sure enough, on February 6th 1886, the element germanium, Ge, was discovered by Clemens Winkler. It had exactly the properties that Mendeleev
predicted. This success led to
the rapid acceptance of the
Periodic Table by other
scientists.

Today in Chemistry
On February 7th 1834 Dmitri Mendeleev, was born. He formulated the Periodic Table in 1869.

Today in Chemistry
On February 8th 1777 Bernard Courtois, was born. He discovered the element iodine, I, by extracting it from seaweed.

Today in Chemistry
On February 9th 1950 the element californium, Cf (atomic number = 98) was discovered. Glenn Seaborg and co-workers used ion-exchange chromatography at the University of California.

The Swedish chemist and geologist Per Teodor Cleve was born on February 10th 1840. He discovered the elements holmium and thulium.
Today in Chemistry

London University was founded on February 11th 1836, although its two main colleges, KCL and UCL both predate the university by a few years.
Today in Chemistry

On February 12th 1957, GEC, the General Electric Company announced that it had made borazon, a material hard enough to scratch diamonds. Borazon is actually the compound boron nitride. The hardness of diamond and borazon is approximately equal, each able to scratch the other. Boron nitride is used for abrasive tools in the mining industry.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
Perhaps the most famous ‘accidental discovery’ occurred when Alexander Fleming noticed that something was killing bacteria on one of his petri
dishes. He reported his initial findings on ‘Cultures of Penicillium’ to the Medical Research Club, London on February 13th 1929.

Today in Chemistry
On February 14th 1961, the element lawrencium, Lr (atomic number 103) was first produced at the University of California in the USA.

On February 15th 1826 the Irish chemist George Stoney was born. He was the first person to coin the
term electron
(atom of electricity).
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
On February 16th 1955 General Electric Research Laboratories announced that they had produced the world’s first synthetic diamond.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was formed on February 17th 1958. Philosopher Bertrand Russell, politician Michael Foot and writer J.B. Priestly were among those present at the initial meeting at Westminster Central Hall.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
On February 18th 1913, the word isotopewas first used by Frederick Soddy to describe atoms with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.

Today in Chemistry
On February 19th 1859, Svante Arrhenius was born. He worked on reaction rates, viscosity, electrolytes and even discovered the Greenhouse Effect! The Arrhenius equation and constant for rates of reaction are named after him and he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903.

Today in Chemistry
On February 20th 1844 Ludwig Boltzmann was born. He came up some of the deepest and most profound ideas in thermodynamics (e.g. the second law) and practically invented the field of statistical mechanics. The Boltzman constant and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular speeds are named after him.

Today in Chemistry
On February 21st 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated his new invention, the Polaroid Camera, for the first time.

Today in Chemistry
On February 22nd 1879 Johannes Bronsted, was born. He did research on catalysis, rates of reactions and ions but is best remembered for his theory of acids and bases. According to the Bronsted-Lowry definition, an acid is a proton donor.

Today in Chemistry
The first meeting of the Chemical Society of London (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) took place on 23rdFebruary 1841.

Only a few atoms of element 107, bohrium, have ever been made. The first atoms were made through a nuclear reaction involving fusion of an isotope of lead, with one of chromium on February 24th 1981,209Pb + 54Cr 262Bh + 1n Isolation of an observable quantity of bohrium has never been achieved, and may well never be. This is because bohrium decays very rapidly through the emission of a-particles.
Today in Chemistry

On February 25th 1896 Ida Noddack, co-discoverer of the element rhenium, Re (atomic number = 75) was born.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
The Italian polymer chemist Giulio Natta was born on February 26th 1903. The Ziegler-Natta catalyst, which speeds up polymerisation reactions, is named after him. He shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1963 with Karl Ziegler.

Today in Chemistry
On February 27th 1932 a letter entitled ‘Possible Existence of the Neutron’ by James Chadwick appeared in Nature. Chadwick was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1935 for discovering the neutron.

Today in Chemistry
The American chemist LinusPauling was born on February 28th 1901. He worked on molecular structure, bonding, valency, and resonance and published an important textbook called The Nature of the Chemical Bond. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 after campaigning for nuclear disarmament.