Fedotev, Pavel

Born June 9 (21), 1864, in Blagoveshchensk, in what is now Amur Oblast; died Mar. 30, 1934, in Leningrad. Soviet chemical engineer. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1933).

After his graduation in 1888 from the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Fedot’ev worked as a chemist in industry. In 1904 he became a professor at the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Polytechnic Institute.

Fedot’ev’s principal works deal with the production of mineral substances and with industrial electrochemistry and electrometallurgy. In 1904 he became the first to offer a theory for the commercial production of sodium carbonate through the Solvay process. He also suggested variations of the ammonia soda process and did work on chlorine production. Fedot’ev developed the physicochemical principles for the production of aluminum through the electrolysis of cryolite-alumina melts; in 1929, under his direction, the Krasnyi Vyborzhets Plant became the first to produce aluminum in the USSR. Fedot’ev also developed the electrolytic production of sodium perborate, potassium chlorate, iron, zinc, nickel, and cobalt.

In accordance with a government directive, Fedot’ev organized the electrolytic refining of silver in Leningrad in 1924. Beginning in 1914 and continuing through the 1930’s, Fedot’ev and his students carried out studies that formed the basis for magnesium production in the USSR.