Nikolaev, Anatolii

Born Nov. 14 (27), 1902, in Orenburg. Soviet inorganic chemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966; corresponding member, 1958). Member of the CPSU since 1960.

Nikolaev graduated from Leningrad State University in 1924. Since 1957 he has been director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (in Novosibirsk); since 1959 he has also been head of a subdepartment at the University of Novosibirsk. His research on natural salts (1927–34) provided the scientific basis for the construction of the Kuchuk Sulfate Combine and a number of salt mines. His thermographic studies led to the discovery of borate rearrangement and determined the nonequilibrium state of many platinoid complexes (for example, cis- compounds and dimers). He found four types of solid solutions of salts of rare earths. His work on the theory of extraction of inorganic compounds revealed the nature of the lower critical point of the separation zone (clathrate dissociation) and made possible the recommendation of new, effective extractant reagents for lantha-nides and actinides, as well as for various nonferrous and noble metals. Nikolaev was the first to use data from X-ray spectral analysis of extractants to determine the nature of the bonds formed with the substances being extracted. Nikolaev has been awarded the V. I. Vernadskii Prize (1946), two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.