Kharkiv is a large industrial and intellectual city in Ukraine. It is specially famous for development of physics in 1920s-1930s, associated with the names of Lev Landau, Lev Shubnikov,….
Kharkiv University was established in 1803, and it was the first University in Russian Impire (or, probably, even in the world) where teaching of physical chemistry as an independent discipline was started in 1860s, due to outstanding efforts of Nikolay N. Beketov (1827-1911), who worked in Kharkiv in 1855-1887. He developed first as synthetic chemist, but his most known original research was related to “metal substitution” redox reactions.
The most deep layers of electrochemical history can be found in 2004 article of Nikolay O. Mchedlov-Petrossyan (Vestnik Kharkiv Nat. Univ. 2004. N 626. Chemistry. Issue 11(34), in Russian). This excellent article addresses chemistry in Kharkiv Univ as a whole; we marked yellow the fragments and names related to earliest physical chemistry and to electrochemistry/solution research, and present some faces and names below.
Vasilyi Ivanovich Lapshin (1809-1888) studied electrochemical decomposition of organic substances and inorganic melts (oxides, sulfides) using a battery of hundreds of Bunsen-like cells (amalgamated Zn and carbon electrodes; chromic or nitric acid). His 1859 observations are described (in Russian) in Vestnik Estestvennykh Nauk (Herald of Natural Sciences), published by the Imperial Moscow Society of Naturalists. 1860. V. 7. Issue 37/38. P. 1159-1182; Issue 39. P. 1223-1229. This text is of interest in respect to heat generation and arc switching in electrolytic cell, and is also considered as very early contribution to melt electrochemistry. Here is biographic text in Ukrainian.
Vladimir Fedorovich Timofeyev (1858-1923)
Pavel Dmitrievich Khrushchev (1849-1909)
Gavriil Efimovich Tomofeyev (1881-1926)
Nikolay Arkadievich Izmailov (1907-1961) was a promonent expert in solutions research, and authored a fundamental monograph in this field.
Comprehensive centenry description of Izmailov’s research, with complete list of his publications, and the memoir of his daughter, Viktoriya N. Izmailova (1930-2002), who was professor of colloid chemistry in Moscow University, and devoted friend of Frumkin school (both texts are in Russian).