Resumen

DUQUE VEGA, Paola R.  y  GRACIA-FADRIQUE, Jesus. Van der Waals, more than a cubic equation of state. Educ. quím [online]. 2015, vol.26, n.3, pp.187-194. ISSN 0187-893X.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eq.2015.05.003.

The present paper analyzes van der Waals's contributions to the study of gases in his historical context. Is under consideration some parallel scientific and technological background, so the reader can notice the role that the study of gases played in the development of the first and the second industrial revolutions. Van der Waals' contributions go beyond his cubic state equation- high light of his doctoral thesis-, he also goes into the correspondent state theory and the surface tension behavior near the critical point. It is concluded that the exponent reported by van der Waals for surface tension remains current and that the proposed periodicity for cubic equation constants shows an innovative panorama, where the molar volumes, at environmental temperature, are close to the volumetric constant and the attractive constant increases with the molecular mass.

Palabras llave : Gas study; Historical context; State cubic equation; van der Waals; Correspondent state theory; Surface tension; Critical point; Periodicity.