Le Châtelier, Henri Louis

Related Category: Chemistry: Biographies

(äNrē´ lwē lə shätəlyā´), 1850–1936, French industrial chemist. He made many contributions to industrial chemistry, but is best known for his work on the structure of alloys and for his enunciation of Le Châtelier's principle. This fundamental contribution to chemical thermodynamics had been anticipated in part by J. W. Gibbs, whose work Le Châtelier helped to spread in France. Toward the end of his life he wrote on topics involving industrial efficiency and labor-management relations.