391 TERENIN 



Biography: 



A. A. Ivanov. Pavel Mikhailovich Tatarinov. Collection of 

 Information of the All- Union Scientific Research Geological 

 Institute, 1956, #4. 



Office: Leningrad Mining Institute 



Leningrad, USSR 



TERENIN, ALEKSANDR NIKOLAEVICH (Physical Chemist) 



A. N. Terenin was born May 6, 1896. In 1921 he graduated 

 from Petrograd (Leningrad) University, and in 1932 he became 

 a professor there. He was a student of D. S. Rozhdestvenskii, 

 the leading Russian optics specialist. In 1932 he was elected a 

 Corresponding Member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences 

 and in 1939 an Academician. He received a Stalin Prize in 1946 

 and in 1953 the S. I. Vavilov Prize, awarded by the U.S.S.R. 

 Academy of Sciences. 



Terenin' s main works are devoted to study of the nature of 

 physical and chemical processes which take place in substances 

 under the influence of light. For discovering and analyzing 

 these processes Terenin worked out optical methods which are 

 based on observation of spectra and the intensity of lumines- 

 cence of primary products of photoreactions. He showed the 

 possibility of selectively exciting emission of atomic spectral 

 lines of metal vapors and analyzing the energy level distri- 

 bution. Terenin studied the dissociation of salt molecules in a 

 vapor state under the influence of light which is accompanied 

 by formation of luminescent atoms (1924). In this way he in- 

 vestigated many polyatomic molecules of inorganic and organic 

 compounds by irradiating them with a short-wave ultraviolet 

 radiation (1936). Terenin used fluorescence of aromatic mole- 

 cules in a vapor state for establishing the mechanism in the 

 intramolecular and intermolecular transformations of energy 

 of excitation (1934). In 1943 he explained the phosphorescence 

 of molecules of complex organic compounds, and of their photo- 

 chemical reactions based on excitation of molecules into a state 

 with two unpaired electrons (biradical). He was the first to ob- 

 tain infra-red spectra of gases at several thousand atmos- 

 pheres (1940). Terenin studied the optical properties of mole- 

 cules, adsorbed on the surface of solid bodies and the nature of 

 catalyst activity (1934). In 1945 he studied the photochemical 

 reactions of chlorophyl and its analogs. In the 1950' s Terenin 

 was investigating reactions of organic molecules by using light 

 to ionize electrons. Terenin is the leader of the school of 

 Soviet photochemists. 



