Chebotin Vasiliy Nikolaevich (1938-1985) — famous theorist who made a great contribution to many fields of physical chemistry and electrochemistry of solid electrolytes.
He was born in Pyankovo village in Kurgan Region. In 1955 he finished the village school with a golden medal and entered the physical-chemical department of Ural State University. In 1960 he graduated from the University with honors diploma in “theoretical physics” and started working at the Institute of Electrochemistry of UB RAS where he practiced his profession for almost 25 years.
In 1965 Vasiliy Nikolaevich defended PhD thesis “Electron conductivity of ion crystals in the balance with gas phase” and got PhD degree, and in 1971 he became the youngest Doctor of Science of Ural Branch of the Academy of Sciences of USSR with his thesis “Research on the theory of solid electrolytes.”
From 1973 till 1983 Chebotin was the head of the Theoretical Group which he founded at the Institute of Electrochemistry. Along with the research work Vasiliy Nikolaevich focused on teaching activities a lot. Fifteen of his students became PhDs and two got Doctor of Sciences degrees. He was an excellent lecturer who could clearly explain the essence of the problem and make it understandable for the audience with different knowledge of subject. During many years Chebotin gave lectures at the Ural State University in the theory of disorder and transfer phenomena in solid states; constantly he gave lectures on chemistry and electrochemistry of solid state at schools of young scientists as well as in many other different universities and research centers.
Vasliliy Nikoalevich used to work productively and enthusiastically. Already during the first few years after graduating the University he published a series of works on the theory of ion crystals. Until the end of his life he worked fruitfully: in 1984-1985 11 articles in central scientific journals were published, and in 1986, already after his death, 6 more articles were to come. Altogether there were about 170 publications during 25 years including a handbook “Transfer phenomena in ion crystals” (1968), widely known, written in co-authorship with M.V. Perfiliev the monograph “ Electrochemistry of solid electrolytes” (1978), the monograph “Physical chemistry of solid state” (1982), and finished already after his death by I.V. Murygin and V.G. Gorodetskiy the monograph “Chemical diffusion in solid states” (1989).
His academic interests were wide and miscellaneous and covered almost all aspects of solid electrolytes electrochemistry. He made a significant contribution to the theory of electron conductivity of ion crystals in balance with gas phase and solved a set of important questions concerning statistical-thermodynamical description of defect- formation in solid electrolytes and ion-electron conductors. He obtained distinguished results in the theory of ion transport in solid electrolytes (chemical and interdiffuison, correlation effects, thermal electromotive force of ion crystals, etc). Big attention M.V. Chebotin paid to the solutions of electrochemical problems: the theory of double layer and the nature of polarization at the boundary electrolyte/gas electrode.
Chebotin usually relied on the experimental data in his work; he rarely was interested in theoretical question itself. It was more important for him to find easy and productive model able to explain experimental facts. In many cases the experiment was carried out together with the theory development, and Vasiliy Nikolaevich directly participated in planning and new experiments arrangement.
Scientific ideas of Vasiliy Nikolaevich are still can be seen in solid state electrolytes works, his articles are quoted, and monographs are used both by qualified workers and by young scientists during their trainings.
