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He was born in Riga (at that time Russia, today Latvia), as the son of master-cooper Gottfried Wilhelm Ostwald and Elisabeth Leuckel. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1875, then taught at Tartu from 1875 to 1881 and Riga Polytechnicum from 1881 to 1887. In 1887, he moved to Leipzig where he worked for the rest of his life.
He invented the Ostwald processThe Ostwald process is a commercial process, invented by Wilhelm Ostwald, used to produce nitric acid. Following production from the Haber process, Ammonia is heated with a catalyst ( platinum) to form nitric oxide that is then oxidized to yield nitrogen used in the manufacture of nitric acidProperties General Name Nitric acid Chemical formula H NO Appearance Clear or brown liquid Physical Formula weight 63. 0 amu Melting point 231 K (-42 °C) Boiling point 356 K (83 °C) Density 1. 5 ×103 kg/ m3 Solubility miscible Thermochemistry ΔH0 -1, leading to mass production of fertilizerFertilizers are chemicals given to plants with the intention of promoting growth; they are usually applied either via the soil or by foliar spraying. Fertilizers typically provide, in varying proportions, the three major plant nutrients ( nitrogen, phosphs and explosives. He also did significant work on dilution theory leading to his discovery of the law of dilutionWilhelm Ostwald’s dilution law is a relationship between the dissociation constant and the degree of dissociation of a weak electrolyte ( acids, bases). which is named after him.
The origin of the word moleThe mole (symbol: mol) is one of the seven SI base units and is commonly used in chemistry. It measures the amount of substance of a system and is defined as the amount of substance that contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in exactly 0, according to Gorin, was introduced into chemistry around 1900 by Ostwald. Ostwald defined one mole as the molecular weight of a substance in mass grams. The concept was linked to the ideal gas, according to Ostwald.
Additionally to his work in chemistry, Wilhelm Ostwald was very productive in an extremely broad range of fields. His published work, which includes numerous philosophical writings, contains of about forty thousand pages.
After an extremely active life, Ostwald died at his country home near Leipzig.