Walther Nernst and Quantum Theory

Abstract

Between the publication of A. Einstein’s paper on the quantum theory of solids in 1907 and the First International Solvay Congress in Physics of 1911 — the then elusive quantum hypothesis became incorporated into physical chemistry and chemistry in general.¹ I focus here on the work of Walther Nernst (1864–1941) in chemical thermodynamics and show how this research, primarily the experimental results, led Nernst to convene the Solvay Congress. Studies of the 1911 Congress ascribe Nernst a mostly organizational role as an outsider to the internal development of quantum theory. Some argue that Einstein’s paper in 1907 made a relatively small impact on the community of physicists until the first Solvay Congress of 1911.² I will show that through the work of Nernst, his collaborators, and participants at conferences during 1907 to 1911, a lively discourse on the relevance of the quantum theory of matter (as opposed to radiation) gradually entered the chemical community. Novel conceptions from quantum theory led during the following two decades to a shift from chemical thermodynamics to modern physical chemistry, that is, to quantum chemistry concerned with the structure of matter, of the atom and molecule, and the theory of the solid state.