Nikolay Ivanovich Kobozev (Russian: Николай Иванович Кобозев; May 12, 1903, Moscow – February 24, 1974, Moscow) was a Soviet physico-chemist, one of the pioneers of electrocatalysis, founder of the Department of Catalysis and Gas Electrochemistry at Moscow State University.
Background and personal life Kobozev was born in a wealthy family of a Kharkov lawyer. His father, Ivan Josefovich Kobozev (1874, Kharkov – 1943, Moscow) graduated from Kharkov Imperial University. His mother, Sophia Adolfovna Feist (d. 1952) was a granddaughter of the German-born Taganrog watchmaker Franz Feist (1805–1888).Franz Feist//Taganrog Old Cemetery Her family was Lutheran. Her father, Adolf Feist, was first a teacher of German; in 1891 he became a member of the board of Kharkov Land Bank.Масленков Игорь Витальевич. Из истории семьи. Кобозевы. samlib.ru. His mother's aunt, Maria Feist, was a sweetheart of Alexander Chekhov.
Nikolay's grandfather, Josef Alekseevich Kobozev (1846, Belgorod – July 18, 1901, Kharkov) moved to Kharkov in the 1860s where he got engaged in textile and flour trade. In 1889 he became a board member of the Second Kharkov Society of Mutual Credit. In 1892 he was elected to the Kharkov city duma.
According to independent researcher Igor Maslenkov, Kobozev's earliest ancestor was a serf peasant of a Belgorod boyar scion Artyom Pischyulin, settled at the village of Melehovo.Масленков И. В. О происхождении Н. И. Кобозева [Текст]/И. В. Масленков // Социально-культурные и исторические аспекты развития региона: история и современность: материалы [сборник] /СКФУ. - Ставрополь, 2021. - Вып. 18. 4.1. - с. 254-267. His grandson, Dmitry Kosmin syn Kobyzev (1697–1752) became a merchant in Belgorod. His wife, Agrafena Fedotovna Maslova (1689–1770) was the daughter of a local poor nobleman. Their son, Stepan, was a merchant too; he was married to the daughter of another Belgorod merchant, Stephanida Rodionovna Dubinina. Stepan's brother, Ivan Dmitrievich Kobozev, was the salt head in Belgorod since 1778. Yakov Stepanovich Kobozev was a Belgorod merchant and ratman. The latter's son, Nikolay Yakovlevich (1781–1834), was a merchant too, but his son, Aleksey Nikolayevich (1804–?) left the merchant guild for the status of an ordinary burger in 1858.
In 1903 his father moved to Moscow, where he worked as a lawyer () at the Administration of Moscow Vindavo-Rybinsk Railroad. After the October Revolution of 1917, he served as a lawyer at the Ministry of Transport.
Nikolay's brother, Vsevolod (1905–1939), was an engineer at the Soviet Ministry of Transport, the head of the electrification department. He was married to the daughter of Vissarion Karandeev, the professor of Moscow higher women's courses. For successful electrification of the Yaroslavl railways Stalin granted him with a golden watch. But in 1937 he was arrested and, in 1939, executed by shooting.
His other brother, Boris was a musician; he died in 1918 from Spanish flu. He also had a sister named Inna, who was seriously ill for most of her life.
Kobozev was married to Esther (Ekaterina in Russian Orthodoxy) Efimovna Halbreich of Jewish background. In 1946 they had a son named Aleksey (1946–2015), who had a daughter. His brother's lineage is continued in the male line.
Since early childhood, Kobozev was ill with poliomielitis. Since the 1920s, he had had a number of serious diseases, including complications of the polio. At some point in his life, he was wheelchaired and had to meet with his students at home.Солженицын А. Бодался теленок с дубом//Николай Иванович Кобозев. М.: Согласие, 1996. С. 417. He had long periods of staying at hospitals or was down in bed recovering. In 1973 he was completely bed-bound.Солженицын А. Бодался теленок с дубом//Николай Иванович Кобозев. М.: Солгасие, 1996. С. 442. His wife had stayed loyal and supportive throughout his life.
Scientific accomplishments In 1924 Kobozev graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University (MSU). The same year he entered the post-graduate studies at the Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry under mentorship of professor Evgeny Shpitalsky.Лаборатория катализа и газовой электрохимии. К 60-летию лаборатории/Кафедра физической химии/МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова. М., 2007. С. 107. Since 1929 he was a lecturer at the Physical Chemistry Department of MSU. In 1935 he started to organize the laboratory of inorganic catalysis at Moscow State University. The same year he received the doctoral degree in chemical studies, the rank of professor and became an active member of MSU's Institute of Chemistry, without dissertation defense. Between 1925 and 1935 he promoted advanced scientific ideas at conferences, organized a special catalysis workshop at MSU's Physical Chemistry Department, and a catalysis sector at the State Institute of Nitrogen, attracting many students.
Theories Catalysis
Kobozev's main focus was on catalysis and thermodynamics. The main problem in catalysis development has been the lack of a single generalized theory. Kobozev believed that the catalysis theories of his time were incapable of producing a common mechanism because they failed to explain the nature and structure of the active centers.Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). P. 145. He saw the main issue of the contemporary catalysis theories in the concept of crystalline nature of catalytic activity. In 1934 he introduced the term electrocatalysis.
In 1939, connecting the kinetic analysis method with the heterogenous catalysis,Лаборатория катализа и газовой электрохимии. К 60-летию лаборатории/Кафедра физической химии/МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова. М., 2007. С. 108. he introduced the theory of active ensembles which regarded how many atoms of metal catalyst can produce a catalytically active center.
In his research he had estimated the minimal number of catalytically active atoms in aggregates for some chemical reactions.Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). p. 8. He argued that the active centers were factored by energy rather than crystalline structures.
He called the minimal group of atoms showing catalytic activity active ensemble. However, he believed that the motion of such active ensembles was limited by special migration areas. Kobozev showcased how the number of atoms in an active ensemble and the average rate of a migration area could be determined by a change in specific activity I on the spread of a catalyst over the surface of a carrier. His study had revealed a connection between the typical heterogenous catalysis and the activity of complex enzymatic catalysts. In 1936 together with A. M. Dubrovskaya, Kobozev demonstrated that regular promoters on the surface of a catalyst are in larger concentration, than inside the phase, while in some cases promoter's presence on the surface brings about decline in catalytic activity.
It had been discovered that in heterogenous catalysis a solid body engages in the reaction not by the entire surface but by a small part of some active surface elements acting in the background of the large inactive crystalline mass of a catalyst. Kobozev had noticed that for some catalysts active surface was only 0.05%, therefore, he had supposed that such active centers were not crystalline but small groups of random atoms. Consequently, he had concluded that catalytic activity takes place not in the crystalline, but the amorphous, precrystalline, phase.
He had also noticed that the crystalline phase was made of a cellular, or mosaic, structure – an aggregate made of closed cells ('migration areas') surrounded by energetic and geometrical barriers impermeable to atoms of the surface, thus remaining isolated. Getting into migration area, as if hollows, atoms gather at the bottom, i.e. in place of maximum adsorbsion potential, creating ensembles. So formed ensembles of atoms of a certain composition, are active centers on an inactive catalytic carrierBerkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). P. 146. Kobozev had studied dissolution of active substance on an inert carrier and found out that increased dissolution resulted in rise in catalytic activity, while minimum of active substance brought about formation of maximally active catalysts. Kobozev had also proposed a formula calculating the number of atoms engaged in active centers.Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). p. 147.
Kobozev's research showed that the most active ensembles consisted of 2 or 3 atoms, which corresponded with Balandin's theory.Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). p. 148.
Kobozev and his students argued that activation of catalyst particles for the reaction has two factors: adsorbsion, i.e. interaction of an ion or atom with particles of a catalyst, and formation of an active center, i.e. interaction of catalyst's particles, which can, however, play separately.
Catalyst's activity can be significantly increased by including larger and thermadynamically unstable masses, which he named aggravation (1946)Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). p. 149. when increase of catalyst's activity is factored by complication of its molecule (increase of molecular mass). So he and his co-workers tried to explain superactivity of enzymes in catalysis.
Kobozev's theory of active ensembles contradicted the contemporary works on the relationship between activity and dispersion in catalysis which argued that catalytic activity of a solid body was higher with rise in the level of dispersion.Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). p. 150.
Further research of the relationship between dispersion and catalytic activity showed that crystalline structures, indeed, had catalystic activity,Berkman S., Morrel J.C. Egloff G. Catalysis, Inorganic and organic. Chicago, 1940. Book 1. [Russian Edition; 1949). p. 151. and his theory hadn't been accepted. Kobozev's catalysts had been proved to be of little production potential, while crystalline catalysts used in industry were fully accepted for their high output.
Kobozev's theory is believed to be practically implemented only if the amount of metal catalyst is small and the object has a block shape.
Kobozev expressed the idea of recuperation of energy that, held by the group of atoms connected to the active center, can partly activate molecules of a new substrate contacting the catalyst.
Kobozev took part in developments by professor Shpitalsky regarding the theory of intermediate products in the homogenous catalysis. Based on catalytic and enzymatic degradation of hydrogen peroxide, Kobozev showcased how studying the results of kinetic research can reveal the chemical composition and physical properties of those intermediate products that had before been only vaguely assumed in literature.
Thermodynamics
Kobozev actively studied thermodynamics and etropy. He believed that neither cells or molecules, nor atoms could factor reasoning.Михеев А. О работе Николая Ивановича Кобозева «Исследование в области термодинамики процессов информации и мышления». [Электронный ресурс] In order to explain it, he introduced the concept of special particles called psychons. In 1948 he also introduced the concept of vector-brownian motion aimed at finding out what in the nerve system rules living being's behavior. His work on the vector-brownian motion is believed to be the predecessor of cybernetics.