Bengt Aurivillius (4 December,

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

– 2 May,

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

in St. Peter's Parish,

Malmöhus County Malmöhus County () was a county of Sweden from 1719 to 1996. On 1 January 1997 it was merged with Kristianstad County to form Skåne County. It had been named after Malmöhus, a castle in Malmö, which was also where the governor originally li ...

) was a Swedish chemist known for his research in metal and mixed

oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound containing at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion (anion bearing a net charge of −2) of oxygen, an O2− ion with oxygen in the oxidation st ...

Education and career

Aurivillius received his basic scientific education at the then

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

where he graduated in 1937 and earned a fil. lic. in 1943."Trio of professors appointed 'Monday's Council'", ''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'' 1965-07-27, s.2 By 1949, he had made some important discoveries about the

oxidation Redox ( , , reduction–oxidation or oxidation–reduction) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of the reactants change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is ...

of mixed metals, which became quite prominent in the world of chemistry. He completed his dissertation, "X-ray Examinations of Bismuth Oxifluoride and Mixed Oxides with Trivalent

Bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element; it has symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs nat ...

", at

in 1951. Aurivillius joined the

Swedish National Defence Research Institute Swedish National Defence Research Institute (, FOA) was a Swedish government agency in defense research existing from 1945 to 31 December 2000. It was amalgamated with the National Aeronautical Research Institute (FFA) into the Swedish Defence ...

in 1952, where he worked first as a research engineer and later senior researcher. By 1960, Aurivillius was a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

of physical chemistry and acting senior lecturer at the

. In 1965, he was appointed professor of

inorganic chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

, a professorship he held until 1983. During the sixties, he worked in the field of

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

alongside his wife, Karin Aurivillius.

Scientific research

Aurivillius is known for his study on bismuth compounds, including bismuth sesquioxide (Bi₂O₃) and bismuth layer structured ferroelectrics based on the oxide

perovskite Perovskite (pronunciation: ) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula ). Its name is also applied to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as , known as the perovskite (stru ...

structure, which was later named after him as the

Aurivillius phases Aurivillius phases are a form of perovskite represented by the general formulae is ( Bi2 O2)(A''n''−1B''n''O3''n''+1) (where A is a large 12 co-ordinate cation, and B is a small 6 co-ordinate cation). Basically, their structure is built by alter ...

. He characterized the ferroelectric properties of these materials, which have become a family of materials for lead-free

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

Personal life

Bengt Aurivillius is a member of the Aurivillius family, his father was the entomologist Christopher Aurivillius. His wife was crystallographer Karin Aurivillius.

References

Swedish Death Book 1901-2013, (Version 6.0) National Archives (2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurivillius, Bengt Academic staff of Stockholm University 20th-century Swedish chemists 1918 births 1994 deaths Stockholm University alumni Crystallographers Inorganic chemists Academic staff of Lund University Solid state chemists

Education and career

Scientific research

Personal life

See also

References