Heyrovský, Jaroslav (1890–1967)

Czech chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1967 for his invention and development of polarography, an electrochemical technique of chemical analysis.

Heyrovský was born in Prague and studied there at Charles University and at University College, London. From 1920 he was on the staff of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry in Prague; in 1950 he became director of the newly founded Polarographic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

Heyrovský's technique depends on detecting the discharge of ions during electrolysis of aqueous solutions. In 1925 he developed the polarograph, an instrument that and traces the resulting voltage–current curve on a chart recorder. Such curves are called polarograms.

Polarography can be used to analyse for several substances at once, and is capable of detecting concentrations as low as 1 part per million. Most chemical elements can be determined by the method (as long as they form ionic species) in compounds, mixtures, or alloys. The technique has been extended to organic analysis and to the study of chemical equilibria and the rates of reactions in solutions. It can also be used for endpoint detection in titrations, a type of volumetric analysis sometimes called voltammetry.