Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

Law of Combining Volumes (Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac)

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) began his career in 1801 by very carefully showing the validity of Charles' law for a number of different gases. Gay-Lussac's most important contributions to the study of gases, however, were experiments he performed on the ratio of the volumes of gases involved in a chemical reaction.

Gay-Lussac studied the volume of gases consumed or produced in a chemical reaction because he was interested in the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to form water. He argued that measurements of the weights of hydrogen and oxygen consumed in this reaction could be influenced by the moisture present in the reaction flask, but this moisture would not affect the volumes of hydrogen and oxygen gases consumed in the reaction.

Much to his surprise, Gay-Lussac found that 199.89 parts by volume of hydrogen were consumed for every 100 parts by volume of oxygen. Thus, hydrogen and oxygen seemed to combine in a simple 2:1 ratio by volume.

Gay-Lussac found similar whole-number ratios for the reaction between other pairs of gases. The compound we now know as hydrogen chloride (HCl) combined with ammonia (NH₃) in a simple 1:1 ratio by volume.

Carbon monoxide combined with oxygen in a 2:1 ratio by volume.

Gay-Lussac obtained similar results when he analyzed the volumes of gases given off when compounds decomposed. Ammonia, for example, decomposed to give three times as much hydrogen by volume as nitrogen.

On 31 December 1808, Gay-Lussac announced his law of combining volumes to a meeting of the Societé Philomatique in Paris. At that time, he summarized the law as follows: Gases combine among themselves in very simple proportions. Today, Gay-Lussac's law is stated as follows: The ratio of the volumes of gases consumed or produced in a chemical reaction is equal to the ratio of simple whole numbers.