Background
Semyonov was born on April 15, 1896 in Saratov, the son of Elena Dmitrieva and Nikolai Semyonov.
(This translation, in two volumes, of an introductory pape...)
This translation, in two volumes, of an introductory paper to a Symposium on Chemical Kinetics and Reactivity, held in Moscow in 1954, has been enlarged and revised by the author, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1956 and one of the two or three top flight Russian physical scientists. Volume 1 covers a wide range of important work and includes a survey of radical and chain reactions and a discussion of chemical changes, direct mono- and bi-molecular processes, ionic reactions, heterogeneous catalysis, initiation and destruction of radical chains on solid surfaces. Originally published in 1958. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1483179141/?tag=2022091-20
(This edition, considerably revised since Russian publicat...)
This edition, considerably revised since Russian publication in 1954, now includes the theories of thermal and chain explosion reviewed in the light of very recent work. The classical example of the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen is treated in detail, and among the large selection of chain reactions analyzed are the gas phase cracking of hydrocarbons and the oxidation of methane and other hydrocarbons in the liquid phase. The book summarizes many recent and unpublished Soviet investigations in the field. Originally published in 1959. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691628807/?tag=2022091-20
Semyonov was born on April 15, 1896 in Saratov, the son of Elena Dmitrieva and Nikolai Semyonov.
Semenov displayed a keen interest in the physical sciences by the time he was 16 and in 1913 entered the physics and mathematics department of the Saint Petersburg State University. In 1917 he ended his studies at that university.
Semyonov was also an Honorary Doctor of several universities, such as Oxford, Brussels, London, Budapest Technical University, Polytechnic Institute of Milan and others.
At the age of 20 Semenov published his first paper on the collision of molecules and electrons.
In 1917 he obtained a position as physicist in the Siberian University of Tomsk and later, in 1920, returned to work for the next 11 years at the Petrograd (in 1924 Leningrad) Institute of Physics and Technology.
In 1928 Semenov became a professor at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute and organized its physics and mathematics department. Three years later he was appointed scientific chief of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1932 he was elected to full membership in the academy, and from 1957 to 1963 he was the academy's secretary of the division of the chemical sciences. In 1944 he was assigned to the University of Moscow, heading the department of chemical kinematics. He also was instrumental in launching scientific journals and organizing Soviet conferences on physical chemistry.
Semenov's scientific investigations dealt primarily with molecular physics and electronic phenomena, the mechanism of chemical transformations, and the propagation of explosive waves. He published in "The Oxidation of Phosphorus Vapor at Low Pressures" (1927) his discovery of branching reaction chains in chemical transformations having the character of an explosion. Semenov intensively continued his researches in chemical reactions involving the chain theory and published his results in Chemical Kinetics and Chain Reactions (1935) and in the exhaustive two-volume study Some Problems in Chemical Kinetics and Reactivity (1958-1959).
Other experiments by Semenov had culminated in his theory of thermal explosions of mixtures of gases. As a result of this research, he increased the understanding of free radicals—highly unstable atoms that contain a single, unpaired electron. Semenov demonstrated that when molecules disintegrate, energy-rich free radicals are formed. His extensive works on this subject were published first in Russian in the 1930s and later in English.
In subsequent research, Semenov found that the walls of an exploding chamber can influence a chain reaction as well as the substances within the chamber. This concept was particularly beneficial in the development of the combustion engine in automobiles. Semenov’s chemical chain reaction theory and his observations on the inflammable nature of gases informed the study of how flames spread, and had practical applications in the oil and chemical industries, in the process of combustion in jet and diesel engines, and in controlling explosions in mines. This work was based on Semenov’s earlier investigations of condensation of steam on hard surfaces and its reaction under electric shock.
Semenov made substantial contributions to the development of Soviet scientific institutions and journals. He was active in the training of Soviet scientists and the organizing of important institutions for scientific research in physical chemistry. His long association with the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. earned him an appointment as a full member in 1932.
In addition, he served as a deputy in the Supreme Soviet in 1958, 1962, and 1966, and in 1961 was elected an alternate member of the party's Central Committee.
When the Academy moved to Moscow in 1944, Semenov began teaching at Moscow University. Semenov’s theories of combustion, explosion, and problems of chemical kinetics, along with a bibliography of his work by the Academy, were published during the 1940s and 1950s and helped secure his role in his field.
Nikolai Semenov is famous for his experiments explaining chemical reactions by means of the mechanism of chain reactions.
For his contributions to reaction kinetics, Semenov was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1956, the first resident Soviet citizen to achieve this distinction.
He also won dozens of other awards.
(This translation, in two volumes, of an introductory pape...)
(This edition, considerably revised since Russian publicat...)
In the Soviet Union Semenov fought for the liberty of experimentation for the scientist, freedom of expression for the artist, and "chain reactions of success" for humanity as a consequence of international scientific exchanges.
Semenov also played an active role in his country's affairs. He first joined the Communist party of the Soviet Union in 1947.
He was the person who answered criticism of the Soviet Union from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a publication of the United States. The Bulletin challenged Soviet scientists to protest against Soviet restrictions on release of scientific publications from the country. Semenov replied that there were no such restrictions and accused the American scientists of ignoring their own government restrictions. It was discovered later that some Soviet publications had been arriving regularly at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Semenov was an honorary member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences, United States National Academy of Sciences, Soviet Academy of Sciences and Romanian Academy.
In 1921, Semenov married philologist Maria Boreishe-Liverovsky (student of Zhirmunsky). She died two years later. In 1923, Nikolay married Maria's niece Natalia Nikolayevna Burtseva. She brought Nikolay a son Yuri and a daughter Lyudmila.
