CHANDLER LECTURE Tire Chandler Lecture for I931 was delivcred at 1:olunibia tiniversity on February 5, 1932, by James f k y a n t Conant, chairman of the Division of Chemistry, Harvarcl Univcrsity. In presenting the medal awarded at the close of the lecture, Dean H. 1,. McBain, of Columbia, spoke in part as follow in praise of the medalist:
sented to this lecturer in further recogrlition of his acliiewments in the chemical field. The previous lectnrers and the tit.les of their lectures aw as follows: 1914
L. 11. Uilekeland
Surne Aapsota of lnduxtriai Cheinirtiy [vu1 0
I916
To most of you his work is well kncrao, snd you know lrirn iw one of the editors of t,hat notable series idled "Organif: Syntheses." Since our chuiw uf Professor Corinnt for tlre Clrnndlcr 1,eetur.cship, it hm been annoiioced thiit he is also to roccivr the NiCI+ Medal. W e a t Columbia are happy thitt the rnrrited recogiir1.ion we have given Professor Conant will be fdlowed in tile near future by i.he uwerd of the Nichols Medal for a liri1li;mt paper on chloruphyll pulilished last year in tlie JourruZ of the Anmicon. Chern,iull society.
Many of you are familiar with his studies on licmogld,in : t i d 011 free radicals, and also with his quxnt.itativesiudics of organir
1920 1921
192% 1921 1925
reactions.
1928
The Charles Prederick Chandlr:r Foundatioli was eatablished in 1010, when fricnds of I'rofessor Chandler presented to the trustecs of Colmnbia University a snm of money, and stipulatid that the income v a s to be used to provide a lectun: by a n eminent chemist and also a medal to Lit, prc-
1927
1928 In28
IYoi. 18, 640 (1!?26)1 ~coiiiborp , ~ ~ Itadieaie ~ i n ~i,ernisiry. ?$.at and rea at:^ [Vd.20, 169 (I92811 ', .4. Wiia"u Chcrnistry and Leather [Val. 21, 1x0 (1929) j Trrinn L n n ~ i n u i r Eleotroehemical Inteiaetiona of Tungsten. Thorium, Capniiiin, aiid Oxysen [Vi4 a>. 380 (19:30)1 M
V
Equilibria and Rates of Some Organic Reactions l x illustrated, however, lby a cunsideratiuii of mme of t i w K S O W L E D G E (if tlie stnictural formula quantitative studies wvliicli wc have been conducting a t of an o r g a n i c coin- IIarvard during the last, ten years. pound enables an experienced THE STKUCTUIlE OF COMPOUNDS >ANI, organic c h e m i s t to make a IASGE OX' ' k E i l l ~ N T E R C O S ~ E R S I O X surprising number of accuEvery eqiiilihiiiiii cimstant fur a reaction occurring in soliirate pred i c t i o ns . 'l' h e s c inchide not m l y qrialit,ativi~ tion is detcritiiiird l,y tvo fact.ors: one factor corresponds t,o statmaints aiioiit r e a c t i t i 11s t.he free-enorgy ctiiingc referrcd to the substances in the gaseand m e t h o d s of synt,l,rsis 011sstate (at low prcssnres), and the other is the effect oE t.lie olvent moleculcs on the escaping tendency of the components. but, also q u : t n t i t a t i v e d e 'his last fartor rarics with the concentration of tfic reactants s c r i p t i o n s of a variety of physical properties, such RS and the nature of the solvent except in tlre very rare Cases refractive itriles and boiliiig where ideal solutions are at hand. It is rea.sonableto supposc oiiint. W e arc admitt~edlv that the simplest relationships between the structure of tlic: HmiroFh compound and the freeenergy change of the reaction will be in a less stitisfactory posit,im \ r i ~ ~ it nwiim tu predicting the mergy cl~angesinv~il\~ed found when the effect of the solvent is eliminated. This can i n tlre transformationuf the substanci: into otlier c
