The 20th century owes much to scientists who made giant strides in each of their fields. One of them was the American Gilbert Newton Lewis who revolutionized the field of chemistry with his studies and advances. His field of study and research were very broad, highlighting the representation of pairs of electrons alone.
A valuable scientist
The American scientist was born in 1875 in the town of Weymouth, in the State of Massachusetts. During his first years of school he attended public classes until he was 14 years old, the year in which he entered the University of Nebraska and then went on to Harvard.
Although from the beginning he showed interest in economics, he focused on chemistry, obtaining a first doctorate in 1898.
During his years of research, Gilbert Newton Lewis obtained numerous honors such as Doctor Honoris Causa at the universities of Chicago, Madrid, Liverpool, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Even so, he never achieved a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for which he was nominated up to 42 times, despite the fact that his research and discoveries helped others to relaunch their professional careers.
Scientific investigations
His contributions to the world of science were great. It stands out, above all, its known as Lewis Structures. There are several methods when it comes to representing a molecule. These elements represent atoms while other elements represent electrons.
In this sense, Lewis was the first of the twentieth century scientists to propose that atoms could be totally bound together if they were compared to a pair of electrons. For this he created the so-called symbolism of structures that are attributed to the scientist as an advance in chemistry.
When he presented his studies in this field, it was the first time that the relationships between ionic, covalent and molecular substances were demonstrated, since until that moment these relationships did not exist, or had not been demonstrated.
Octet theory
This theory was enunciated by Gilbert Newton Lewis in 1916. In it it was shown that the ions of periodic elements have a tendency to complete their last energy levels with the amount of 8 electrons.
This rule would apply to the creation of bonds between atoms that will depend on the type of bond, the number of bonds per atom and the intermolecular forces.
Gilbert Newton Lewis could not continue with his investigations as he was found dead in his office at the University of Berkeley on March 23, 1946. According to the official report, he died of a heart attack.
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