Joseph Achille Le Bel (21 January 1847 in
Pechelbronn
Merkwiller-Pechelbronn () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
It is notable as the original home of oil sands mining.
Oil sands were mined from 1745 in Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, initially under the direc ...
– 6 August 1930, in
Paris, France
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
) was a French
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...
. He is best known for his work in
stereochemistry. Le Bel was educated at the
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. In 1874 he announced his theory outlining the relationship between molecular structure and optical activity.
This discovery laid the foundation of the science of stereochemistry, which deals with the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules. This hypothesis was put forward in the same year by the Dutch physical chemist
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and is currently known as
Le Bel–van't Hoff rule. Le Bel wrote ''Cosmologie Rationelle'' (Rational Cosmology) in 1929.
Works
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See also
*
Hexamethylbenzene
Hexamethylbenzene, also known as mellitene, is a hydrocarbon with the molecular formula C12H18 and the condensed structural formula C6(CH3)6. It is an aromatic compound and a derivative of benzene, where benzene's six hydrogen atoms have each ...
*
Optical rotation
References
Royal Society of Chemistry obituary
1847 births
1930 deaths
19th-century French chemists
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Stereochemists
People from Bas-Rhin
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