Marcel Pourbaix

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Marcel Pourbaix bigraphy, stories - Chemists

Marcel Pourbaix : biography

19 September 1904 – 28 September 1998

Marcel Pourbaix was born on 16 September 1904 in Myshega (Aleksin District, Tula Oblast, Russia, ), where his father was a consultant on an engineering project. A brilliant chemist, he performed his most well known research at the University of Brussels, studying corrosion. His biggest achievement is the derivation of potential-pH, better known as “Pourbaix Diagrams”. Pourbaix Diagrams are thermodynamic charts constructed using the Nernst equation and visualize the relationship between possible phases of a system, bounded by lines representing the reactions that transport between them. They can be read much like a phase diagram.

In 1963, Pourbaix produced "Atlas of Electrochemical Equilibria", which contains potential-pH diagrams for all elements known at the time. Pourbaix and his collaborators began preparing the work in the early 1950s.

Marcel Pourbaix was not only a scientist, but also a skilled pianist.