Vladimir Kistiakovskii

Born Sept. 30 (Oct. 12), 1865, in Kiev; died Oct. 19, 1952, in Moscow. Soviet physical chemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929; corresponding member, 1925).

Kistiakovskii graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1889. From 1903 to 1934 he was a professor at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. From 1934 to 1939 he was director of the Colloid-Electrochemical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Kistiakovskii discovered the relationship between the molecular heat of evaporation and the volume of steam at the boiling point (1916), as well as the relationship between the molecular heat of evaporation of an unassociated liquid and its boiling point. He proposed original techniques and devices for studying electrochemical processes. Kistiakovskii was the first to compile a table of electrode potentials that was supported by theory and to conduct extensive investigations of the electrochemistry of magnesium, chromium, iron, aluminum, and other metals (1910). His studies on complex colloid-electrochemical problems (from 1925) have proved to be invaluable. Kistiakovskii developed new concepts relating to the processes of metal corrosion and electrocrystallization and proposed a new explanation of metal passivity. The results of his investigations have found wide application in the protection of metals against corrosion, in electroplating techniques, and in metal refining (1929–39).

Kistiakovskii was awarded two Orders of Lenin and several medals.