Amedeo Avogadro：现代化学的铺路人，无惧争议，永不言弃！

Attention Please~

阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗

饱受冷遇的真理，质疑声下的告别

这是他为自己写下的预言：在物理学家和化学家深入地研究原子论和分子假说之后，正如我所预言，它将要成为整个化学的基础和使化学这门科学日益完善的源泉。

这是一位科学家跌宕起伏的一生：生时不被理解，饱受冷遇；死后理论得证，终成经典。

他是阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗（Amedeo Avogadro），由他提出的分子假说奠定了原子—分子论的基础，推动了物理学、化学的发展，对近代科学产生了深远的影响。

在质疑声中一路走来，在怀疑的目光中溘然长逝，本期就让我们一起走进阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗的传奇一生！

图1：阿伏伽德罗假说

#1

拥有科学梦的贵族伯爵

Amedeo Avogadro was born in Turin, Italy, on August 9th, 1776.

His family background was aristocratic. His father, Filippo, was a magistrate and senator who had the title of Count. His mother was a noblewoman, Anna Vercellone of Biella.

Amedeo Avogadro inherited the title of Count from his father. Avogadro was highly intelligent. In 1796, when he was only 20, he was awarded a doctorate in canon law and began to practice as an ecclesiastical lawyer.

Although he had followed the family tradition by studying law, he gradually lost interest in legal matters. He found science was much more intellectually stimulating.

Mathematics and physics in particular attracted his logical mind. He spent increasing amounts of time studying these subjects. He was helped in this by the prominent mathematical physicist Professor Vassalli Eandi.

阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗于1776年8月9日出生在意大利都灵。

他出生于一个贵族家庭，他的父亲菲利波是一名行政长官和参议员，拥有伯爵头衔。他的母亲同样也是一位贵族。

阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗从他父亲那里继承了伯爵的头衔，而且非常聪明。1796年，当他只有20岁时，就被授予了教会法的博士学位，并开始作为教会律师执业。

虽然遵循家族传统学习法律，但他逐渐对法律事务失去了兴趣。他发现科学对他的智力更具有挑战性。

数学和物理学特别吸引他的逻辑思维，于是他花了越来越多的时间研究这些学科。在这方面，他得到了著名数学和物理学家Vassalli Eandi的帮助。

图2：意大利都灵的城堡风光

In 1803, in cooperation with his brother Felice, Avogadro published his first scientific paper, which looked at the electrical behavior of salt solutions. This was state-of-the-art science: only three years earlier, Avogadro’s fellow Italian Alessandro Volta had invented the electric battery.

In 1806, aged 30, Avogadro abandoned his successful legal practice and started teaching mathematics and physics at a high school in Turin. In 1809 he became a senior teacher at the College of Vercelli.

In 1820 Avogadro became professor of mathematical physics at the University of Turin. Unfortunately, this post was short lived because of political turmoil. Avogadro lost his job in 1823.

Avogadro was reappointed in 1833 and remained in this post until, at the age of 74, he retired in 1850.

Although he was an aristocrat, Avogadro was a down-to-earth, private man, who was quietly religious. He worked hard and his lifestyle was simple. His wife’s name was Felicita Mazzé. They married in 1818 when Avogadro was aged 42. They had six sons.

1803年，阿伏伽德罗与他的兄弟合作发表了一篇关于盐溶液中的电性能的论文，只比他的同胞，另一位意大利科学家亚历山德罗·伏特发明的电池晚了三年。

1806年，30岁的阿伏伽德罗放弃了他成功的法律事业，开始在都灵的一所中学教授数学和物理。1809年，他成为了维切利皇家学院的物理学讲师。

1820年，阿伏伽德罗受聘成为都灵大学的数学和物理学教授。不幸的是，由于政治动荡，这段职业生涯是短暂的。阿伏伽德罗在1823年失去了他的工作。

1833年阿伏伽德罗被都灵大学重新任命，并一直担任这一职务至1850年他74岁退休时。

虽然是一个贵族，但阿伏伽德罗是一个脚踏实地的人，也是一个沉默的宗教人士。他努力工作，生活简单。他的妻子名叫Felicita Mazzé，他们于1818年成婚，当时阿伏伽德罗42岁，总共育有六个儿子。

图3：阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗

#2

阿伏伽德罗的科学求索之路

In the early 1800s, scientists’ ideas about the particles we now call atoms and molecules were very limited and often incorrect. Avogadro was deeply interested in finding out how the basic particles of matter behave and come together to form chemical compounds.

He studied the work of two other scientists:

1. John Dalton

In 1808 John Dalton published his atomic theory proposing that all matter is made of atoms. He further stated that all atoms of an element are identical, and the atoms of different elements have different masses. In doing so, Dalton carried chemistry to a new level. But he also made mistakes about the way elements combine to form compounds. For example, he thought water was made of one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom and wrote it as HO; today we know water contains two hydrogens to every oxygen and we write water as H₂O. Actually, Avogadro figured this out, as we shall see.

19世纪初，科学家们对我们现在称为原子和分子的粒子的想法非常有限，而且往往不正确。阿伏伽德罗就对找出物质的基本粒子如何表现并聚集在一起形成化学化合物深感兴趣。

他研究了另外两位科学家的工作。

1. 约翰-道尔顿：

1808年，约翰·道尔顿发表了他的原子理论：所有物质都是由原子构成的。他进一步指出，同种元素的所有原子都是相同的，而不同元素的原子具有不同的质量。道尔顿将化学带入了一个新的高度，但他对元素结合成化合物的方式的认知犯了错误。例如，他认为水是由一个氢原子和一个氧原子组成的，并把它写成HO。但现在我们已经知道一个水分子是由一个氧原子和两个氢原子组成的，并把水写成H₂O。事实上，我们将会看到，阿伏伽德罗也认识到了这一点。

图4：约翰·道尔顿

2. Joseph Gay-Lussac

In 1809 Joseph Gay-Lussac published his law of combining gas volumes. He had noticed that when two liters of hydrogen gas react with one liter of oxygen gas, they form two liters of gaseous water. All gases that he reacted seemed to react in simple volume ratios.

2. 约瑟夫·盖-吕萨克：

1809年，约瑟夫·盖-吕萨克发表了著名的气体化合体积实验定律。他注意到，当两升氢气与一升氧气反应时，会形成两升的气态水。因此他认为参加同一反应的各种气体，在同温同压下，其体积成简单的整数比。

图5： 约瑟夫·盖-吕萨克

#3

阿伏伽德罗假说的问世

In 1811 Avogadro published a paper in Journal de Physique, the French Journal of Physics. He said that the best explanation for Gay-Lussac’s observations of gas reactions was that equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules. This is now called Avogadro’s law. He published it when he was working as a physics teacher at the College of Vercelli.

In Avogadro’s (correct) view, the reason that two liters of hydrogen gas react with a liter of oxygen gas to form just two liters of gaseous water is that the volume decreases because the number of particles present decreases. Therefore the chemical reaction must be:

2H₂(gas) + O₂ (gas) → 2H₂O (gas)

1811年，阿伏伽德罗在《物理学杂志》（法国物理学杂志）上发表了一篇论文。文中写道，对盖-吕萨克观察到的气体反应的最好解释是，在相同的温度和压力下，同等体积的所有气体含有同等数量的分子。这就是现在的阿伏伽德罗定律。他在维切利皇家学院担任物理讲师时发表了这一观点。

在阿伏伽德罗（正确）的观点中，两升氢气与一升氧气反应只形成两升气态水的原因是：粒子数量减少了，体积也就减少了。因此，化学反应式应该是：

2H₂(氢气)+ O₂(氧气)→ 2H₂O(气态水)

图6：水分子结构图

In this reaction three particles (two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule) come together to form two particles of water… or 200 particles react with 100 particles to form 200 particles… or 2 million particles react with 1 million particles to form 2 million particles… etc. The observable effect is that after the reaction, when all of the hydrogen and oxygen gases have become H₂O gas, the volume of gas falls to two-thirds of the starting volume.

As a result of these observations Avogadro became the first scientist to realize that elements could exist as molecules rather than as individual atoms. For example, he recognized that the oxygen around us exists as a molecule in which two atoms of oxygen are linked.

Other scientists in the field, such as Dalton, believed that only compounds could form molecules while all elements existed as single atoms.

在这个反应式中，三个粒子（两个氢分子和一个氧分子）一起形成两个水粒子或者200个氢粒子与100个氧粒子反应形成200个水粒子或者200万个氢粒子与100万个氧粒子反应形成200万个水粒子等等。可观察到的效果是，反应结束后，当所有的氢气和氧气都变成H₂O气体时，气体的体积会下降到起始体积的三分之二。

由于这些观察结果，阿伏伽德罗成为第一个认识到元素可以作为分子而不是单个原子存在的科学家。例如，他认识到我们周围的氧气是作为一个分子存在的，其中有两个氧原子相连。

该领域的其他科学家，如道尔顿，则认为只有化合物才能形成分子，而所有元素都以单原子形式存在。

图7：元素有单个原子连一起的分子存在形式

In 1815 Avogadro published a further paper in Journal de Physique discussing the masses of atoms, their compounds, and their gas densities.

In 1821, as professor of mathematical physics at the University of Turin, he published a further paper looking at the masses of atoms and the proportions in which they combine.

Between 1837 and 1841 Avogadro published four weighty volumes looking in detail at the physics of matter.

Avogadro’s findings were almost completely ignored until Stanislao Cannizarro presented them at the Karlsruhe Conference in 1860, four years after Avogadro’s death. This conference had been called to remedy the scientific confusion that existed about atoms, molecules, and their masses.

Even after Cannizarro presented his work not all scientists agreed with it. Another decade passed, with continued strong advocacy from Cannizarro, before Avogadro’s hypothesis became more widely accepted and became Avogadro’s Law.

Today Avogadro is regarded as one of the founders of atomic-molecular chemistry.

1815年，阿伏伽德罗在《物理学杂志》上又发表了一篇论文，讨论了原子的质量、它们的化合物以及气体密度。

1821年，作为都灵大学的数学和物理学教授，他又发表了一篇论文，研究了原子的质量和它们结合的比例。

1837年至1841年间，阿伏伽德罗出版了四卷厚重的书，详细研究了物质的物理特性。

但是阿伏伽德罗的发现几乎被完全忽视，直到1860年，即阿伏伽德罗去世四年后，斯坦尼斯劳·坎尼扎罗在卡尔斯鲁厄会议上提出了这些发现。召开这次会议是为了纠正在原子、分子及其质量方面存在的科学混乱。

即使在坎尼扎罗慷慨陈词后，也不是所有的科学家都同意他的观点。又过了十年，在坎尼扎罗的持续大力宣传下，阿伏伽德罗的假设才被更广泛地接受，并成为阿伏伽德罗定律。

今天，阿伏伽德罗被认为是原子-分子化学的创始人之一。

图8：意大利科学家坎尼扎罗

#4

长达半个世纪的质疑与冷遇

There are a number of reasons why Avogadro’s work was not accepted quickly:

• He published his work in Journal de Physique, which had only a few readers.

• The theories of better known scientists of the time, like John Dalton and Jöns Jacob Berzelius, disagreed with Avogadro’s work.

• Italy – the country of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo – was no longer regarded as a country where great science was done. Realizing this, a few years earlier, Avogadro’s compatriot Alessandro Volta had traveled out of Italy to make himself and his work known to scientists in other countries. Avogadro stayed in Italy and did not make personal contact with foreign scientists to help bridge the gap as Volta had done.

阿伏伽德罗的工作没有被迅速接受的原因有很多：

•  他在《物理学杂志》上发表了他的作品，但该杂志只有少数读者。

• 当时更知名的科学家，如约翰·道尔顿和约恩斯·雅各布·贝采利乌斯的理论与阿伏伽德罗的工作有分歧。

•  意大利（达芬奇和伽利略的祖国）已不再被视为是一个从事伟大科学的国家。我们必须正视这一点：就在几年前，阿伏伽德罗的同胞著名科学家亚历山德罗·伏特曾离开意大利，让其他国家的科学家了解他自己和他的工作。但阿伏伽德罗选择留在意大利，没有像伏特那样与外国科学家进行接触以帮助弥合差距。

图9：著名意大利科学家亚历山德罗·伏特

Even though we like to think of science as a noble endeavor, where the truth will quickly become obvious, this is not always the case. Scientists are just people; they can be stubborn, as we all can be at times. If you have a controversial new scientific theory, and you are not well-known, it seems that personal contact can sometimes achieve as much as a scientific paper – or even more.

尽管我们喜欢认为科学是一项崇高的工作，真理会很快脱颖而出，但情况并非总是如此。科学家也是人，他们可能会很固执，就像我们所有人有时会很固执一样。如果你发现了一个有争议的新科学理论，而你并不出名，与著名科学家的接触有时可以达到与科学论文一样的效果—甚至更多。

#5

阿伏伽德罗常数的诞生

Avogadro’s constant is one of the most important numbers in chemistry. Its value is 6.02214129×10²³. Avogadro did not calculate this number, but its existence follows logically from his hypothesis and work.

Avogadro’s constant is the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in one mole of any substance. For example, 12 grams of carbon contains 6.02214129×10²³ carbon atoms.

Avogadro’s constant is an enormous number. If you could save a million dollars a second, it would take you longer than the universe is believed to have existed to save 6.02214129×10²³ dollars; which all goes to show that it takes a lot of atoms to make a small amount of matter !

阿伏伽德罗常数是化学中最重要的数字之一，其数值为6.02214129×10²³。阿伏伽德罗没有计算过这个数字，但它的存在符合他的假设和工作的逻辑。

阿伏伽德罗常数是一摩尔任何物质中的粒子（原子或分子）数量。例如，12克的碳中含有6.02214129×10²³个碳原子。

阿伏伽德罗常数是一个巨大的数字。如果你能在一秒钟内存下一百万美元，那么你存下6.02214129×10²³美元的时间就会比传说中宇宙存在的时间还要长。这一切都说明，要想制造少量的物质，需要大量的原子。

图10：阿伏伽德罗常数

1856年的盛夏，阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗于都灵与世长辞，他的葬礼没有追悼仪式，没有同行吊唁，正如他不慕名利的一生。不畏流言，不惧争议，他的科学求索之路，孤独而漫长，从容而坚定！

1956年，意大利科学院召开了阿伏伽德罗逝世100周年纪念大会。纪念会上意大利总统将首次颁发的阿伏伽德罗大金质奖章授予了两名诺贝尔化学奖获得者：英国化学家邢歇伍德、美国化学家鲍林。他们在致词中赞颂：为人类科学发展作出突出贡献的阿伏伽德罗永远为人们所崇敬。

出身显赫，却选择为科学事业奋斗终生；不逐名利，历史却永远记住了他的名字：阿莫迪欧·阿伏伽德罗！

原文链接：

https://www.famousscientists.org/amedeo-avogadro/

资料来源：《Famous Scientists》

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博士科普，Philosophiae Doctor Science Network，加拿大官方认证非营利性协会，诞生于加拿大滑铁卢大学。致力于普及科学知识，建立国内外科研交流桥梁。