Theodor von Grotthuss (1785 – 1822) was a Lithuanian-born scientist and natural philosopher of German ethnicity known for establishing the first theory of electrolysis in 1805 and formulating the first law of photochemistry in 1817. He was born in Leipzig during an extended stay of his parents away from their home in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After leaving to study abroad in Leipzig, Paris, Rome and Naples in 1803, he came back to his mother’s estate in Gedučiai in 1808 where he established a personal laboratory. Gedučiai is currently a small village close to town of Žeimelis in Pakruojis district municipality, Lithuania.
The building where Theodor von Grotthuss is believed to have conducted his unique experiments, still exists in Gedučiai. The Žiemgala museum in Žeimelis, plans to reconstruct the equipment used by von Grotthuss and to establish an educational laboratory for visitors and schoolchildren.
Theodor von Grotthuss spent the major part of his life in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This places him within the historical context of Central and Northern Europe, particularly the Baltic region and Lithuania. The work of von Grotthuss in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with the European Enlightenment. His contributions added to the broader European scientific dialogue of his time. His ideas and discoveries had a lasting impact onEuropean chemical and physical sciences and his work also contributed to the development of later electrochemical theories (S. Arrhenius, 1903 Nobel Lecture) and had applications in various industries and scientific fields throughout Europe. The work of von Grotthuss could be seen as a continuation of the chemical revolution initiated by Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry.
The first theory of electrolysis was first published in Rome (C. J. T. de Grotthuss, “Mémoire sur la décomposition de l’eau et des corps qu’elle tient en dissolution à l’aide de l’électricité galvanique”, Rome, 1805, p. 15) and was quickly translated into English and German. It is considered to be the first description of the so-called Grotthuss mechanism. This landmark document laid out new directions for the interpretation of galvanic phenomena, electrolysis, and later biological systems which influenced future investigations by H. Davy, J. J. Berzelius, M. Faraday, S. Arrhenius and others. Grotthuss presented the theoretical foundations for luminescence, which were later elaborated in the second half of the 19th century by A. E. Becquerel, D. Brewster, and A. D. Stokes. Grotthuss formulated some original ideas pertaining to photochemical reactions. These observations were confirmed some 20 years later by J. F. W. Herschel and J. Draper and eventually became known as the Grotthuss-Draper first and second laws of photochemistry.
