Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand (20 October 1826 – 5 November 1897) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

. He was a professor at the

University of Lund , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion 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.

Education and career

Blomstrand was born in

Växjö Växjö ( ) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 70,489 inhabitants (2019) out of a municipal population of 95,995 (2021). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of Kronoberg County ...

, Sweden to his father John Blomstrand, who was a teacher, and his wife Severina Rodhe. Blomstrand studied mineralogy at the

University of Lund , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Berzelius scholarship. In 1854, he completed his habilitation for research on

bromine Bromine is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is the third-lightest element in group 17 of the periodic table ( halogens) and is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a simi ...

and iodine compounds of

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

. 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, Blomstrand's entire career was at the University of Lund. 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. He became a professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Lund in 1862, remaining there until his retirement in 1895. He served as

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the university from 1871-1872.

The elements

Blomstrand's experimental research involved the characterization and analysis of minerals, particularly those which were rare or of unknown composition. These included

euxenite Euxenite, or euxenite-(Y) (the official mineralogical name), is a brownish black mineral with a metallic luster. Chemistry It contains calcium, niobium, tantalum, cerium, titanium, yttrium, and typically uranium and thorium, with some other meta ...

ilmenite Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing ...

monazite Monazite is a primarily reddish-brown phosphate mineral that contains rare-earth elements. Due to variability in composition, monazite is considered a group of minerals. The most common species of the group is monazite-(Ce), that is, the ceriu ...

niobite Columbite, also called niobite, niobite-tantalite and columbate [], is a black mineral group that is an ore of niobium. It has a submetallic Lustre (mineralogy), luster and a high density and is a niobate of iron and manganese. This mineral group ...

, and

tantalite The mineral group tantalite Fe,_manganese.html"_;"title="iron.html"_;"title="iron">Fe,_manganese">Mn)Tantalum">Ta2oxygen.html" ;"title="manganese">Mn)Tantalum.html" ;"title="iron">Fe,_manganese.html" ;"title="iron.html" ;"title="iron">Fe, manga ...

. He focused on the

chemical analysis Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

of what are now known as the group Vb subgroup of

Group 5 element Group 5 is a group of elements in the periodic table. Group 5 contains vanadium (V), niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta) and dubnium (Db). This group lies in the d-block of the periodic table. This group is sometimes called the vanadium group or vanadi ...

s. These "earth acids" include the elements

tantalum Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as ''tantalium'', it is named after Tantalus, a villain in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a very hard, ductile, lustrous, blue-gray transition metal that ...

, niobium, molybdenum,

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

, and their various mineral associates. In 1864, Blomstrand was the first person to successfully obtain the element niobium in pure form. 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. Niobium had previously been discovered in 1801 by English scientist

Charles Hatchett Charles Hatchett FRS FRSE (2 January 1765 – 10 March 1847) was an English mineralogist and analytical chemist who discovered the element niobium, for which he proposed the name "columbium". Hatchett was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Soci ...

, 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. 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". While Blomsrand's system was a significant advance toward developing a periodic table of the elements, it did not account well for

metals A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...

. Blomstrand included his system in his revised edition of

Nils Johan Berlin Nils Johan Berlin (Nils Johannes Berlin) (18 February 1812 – 27 December 1891) was a Swedish chemist and physician, who held various professorships at the University of Lund from 1843 to 1864. Berlin was the first chemist who took the initiativ ...

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 The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ...

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. He attempted to reconcile the dualistic theory of Jöns Jacob Berzelius with unitary and type theories. Blomstrand developed the most widely accepted of the 19th century theories of

coordination complexes A coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ''ligands'' or complexing agents. Many ...

. His chain theory (1869) was further developed, modified, and experimentally supported by his colleague

Sophus Mads Jørgensen Sophus Mads Jørgensen (4 July 1837 – 1 April 1914) was a Danish chemist. He is considered one of the founders of coordination chemistry, and is known for the debates which he had with Alfred Werner during 1893-1899. While Jørgensen's theories o ...

. Jørgensen prepared numerous examples of coordination complexes, providing an experimental foundation for Blomstrand-Jørgensen chain theory and for Alfred Werners 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.

Recognition

The island Blomstrandhalvøya and the glacier Blomstrandbreen on Spitsbergen are named after him.

Representative publications

* *

Education and career

The elements

Chemical structure

Recognition

Representative publications

References

Further reading