"Physical chemistry is not just a branch on but the blossom of the tree of knowledge," declared Ostwald, a most vocal advocate of his field, conceived as the basis for all of chemistry. This Essay describes the historical development of physical and theoretical chemistry with a focus on Berlin and Leipzig, its foremost centers in Germany.

By Christoph Hanske, Johann Erath, Christin Kühr, Martin Trebbin, Christian Schneider ,, Alexander Wittemann, and Andreas Fery1,∗ 1 Physical Chemistry II, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany 2 Physical Chemistry I, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany 3 F-I2 Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, 14109 Berlin, Germany 4 Department of Chemistry, Un...

ion moval of an atom (neutral or charged) from a molecular entity. For example: A chemical reaction or transformation, the main feature of which is the bimolecular reCH3COCH3 + (i-C3H7)2N(CH&OCH;?>+ (i-C3H7)2NH (proton abstraction from acetone) CH4 + C1' H3C' + HCl (hydrogen abstraction from methane) acceptor number (AN)

a Institute of Physical Chemistry, Attila Jözsef University, Szeged, Hungary; on leave from Faculty of Science, University of Kragujevac b Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. c Department of Chemistry, National Chung-Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C. d Department of Information Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan e Division of Physical Chemistry, ...

BY A. CEULEMANS1,*, E. LIJNEN1, P. W. FOWLER2, R. B. MALLION3 AND T. PISANSKI4 1Division of Quantum Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, Heverlee 3001, Belgium 2Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7HF, UK 3School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK 4Faculty of Mathematics and Physics...

Physical organic chemistry (POC) and reactive intermediate chemistry (RIC) belong to the core subjects of organic chemistry. During the 1990s and 2000s both had become increasingly less fashionable, and in many countries, the mass of active researchers working in POC and RIC was in danger of becoming subcritical. Consequently, in 2003, the WhitesidesReport on the status of chemistry in Great Br...

The 'silica hypothesis' is one of several frameworks that have been put forward to explain how homeopathic remedies, which often are diluted beyond the point where any of the original substance remains, might still be clinically effective. We describe here what the silica hypothesis says. From a physical chemistry viewpoint, we explore three challenges that the hypothesis would have to meet in ...

It is well known that the interaction of polyelectrolytes with oppositely charged surfactants leads to an associative phase separation; however, the phase behavior of DNA and oppositely charged surfactants is more strongly associative than observed in other systems. A precipitate is formed with very low amounts of surfactant and DNA. DNA compaction is a general phenomenon in the presence of mul...