Editing Wilhelm Ostwald (section)

=== Nitric acid process ===
Ostwald invented a process for the inexpensive manufacture of [[nitric acid]] by [[oxidation]] of [[ammonia]]. He was awarded patents for this process.<ref>W. Ostwald, "Process for Manufacturing Nitric Acid, [https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/93/97/63/d4b81eb9a5c399/US858904.pdf US858904], 2 July 1907.</ref> Ostwald's patent made use of a [[catalyst]] and described conditions under which the yield of nitric acid was near the [[Theoretical yield|theoretical limit]]. Aspects of the basic process had also been patented some 64 years earlier by [[Charles Frédéric Kuhlmann|Kuhlmann]].<ref>Note:

* Frédéric Kuhlmann, "Pour la fabrication de l'acide nitrique et des nitrates," French patent no. 11,331 (filed:  October 1838; issued:  22 December 1838).  Supplemental patent issued:  7 June 1839.  See:  ''Description des machines et procédés consignés dans les brevets d'invention,'' ... [Description of machines and methods recorded in the patents of invention, ... ] (Paris, France:  Madame Veuve Bouchard-Huzard, 1854), '''82''' :  [https://books.google.com/books?id=BppbAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA160 160.]
* Fréd. Kuhlmann (1838) [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k29662/f1107.image.langEN "Note sur plusieurs réactions nouvelles déterminées par l'éponge de platine, et considérations sur les services que cette substance est appelée à rendre à la science"] (Note on several new reactions caused by platinum sponge, and reflections on the services that this substance is called to render to science), ''Comptes rendus'', '''7''' :  1107–1110.  From page 1109:  ''"1°. L'ammoniaque mêlée d'air en passant à une température de 300° environ sur de l'éponge de platine, est décomposée, et l'azote qu'il renferme est complétement transformé en acide nitrique, aux dépens de l'oxigène de l'air."'' (1. Ammonia mixed with air, upon passing at a temperature of about 300° over platinum sponge, is decomposed and the nitrogen that it contains is completely transformed into nitric acid, at the expense of the oxygen of the air.)
* John Graham Smith (1988)  "Frédéric Kuhlmann:  Pioneer of platinum as an industrial catalyst," ''Platinum Metals Review'', '''32''' (2) :  84–90.</ref> Kuhlmann's process did not become industrially significant, likely due to the lack of an inexpensive source of ammonia.  Shortly after Ostwald's finding, inexpensive ammonia became available as a result of [[Fritz Haber|Haber]] and [[Carl Bosch|Bosch's]] invention of a process for [[nitrogen fixation|nitrogen fixing]] [[Haber process|process]] (completed by 1911 or 1913) for ammonia synthesis. The combination of these two breakthroughs soon led to more economical and larger-scale production of [[fertilizer]]s and [[explosives]], of which Germany was in short supply during [[World War I]].<ref name="Haber process">{{cite web |last1=Louchheim |first1=Justin |title=Fertilizer History: The Haber-Bosch Process |url=https://www.tfi.org/the-feed/fertilizer-history-haber-bosch-process#:~:text=The%20solution%20soon%20came%20from,component%20in%20nitrogen%2Dbased%20fertilizers. |website=tfi.org |date=19 November 2014 |publisher=The Fertilizer Institute |access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="Explosives">{{cite web |last1=Sutton |first1=Mike |title=Chemists at War |url=https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/chemists-at-war/7568.article#/ |website=chemistryworld.org |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref> The process is often referred to as the [[Ostwald Process]].<ref name="Explosives" /> The process remains in widespread use in contemporary times for manufacture of nitric acid.<ref name="Catalysis" />
[[File:Van 't Hoff und Ostwald 01.jpg|left|thumb|300px|[[Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff|Jacobus van 't Hoff]] (left) and Wilhelm Ostwald]]