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Jöns Jakob Berzelius Bio


Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779 - 1848)

Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779 - 1848)

Jöns Jakob Berzelius:

Jöns Jakob Berzelius was a Swedish chemist.


August 20, 1779 near Linköping, Sweden


August 7, 1848 in Stockholm, Sweden

Claim to Fame:

Berzelius was a Swedish chemist who created a table of elements based relative atomic weights where the weight of oxygen was set to 100. He was the first to use the chemical notation system in use today, with symbols for elements and numbers to denote the proportions. The difference between his system and today's is where the number is placed. Today, a subscript is used to denote the proportion where Berzelius used a superscript. Example: H2O would be written as H2.

Berzelius is credited with the discovery of silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium. He also coined the terms for catalysis, polymer, isomer and allotrope.

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