Dmitri Konovalov

They provide the basis for distillation and separation of components that form azeotropes.

He became a student of Dmitri Mendeleev in 1890 and later succeeded him as professor of inorganic chemistry at St. Petersburg.

He became director of the Mining institute in 1904 and became a deputy minister of trade and industry, while also presiding of the bureau of weights and measures.

Konovalov's second rule was that the maxima or minima of saturation vapour-pressure curves corresponded to the composition of azeotropic mixtures.

[2] Konovalov also examined osmotic pressure across membranes and gave a formula for equilibrium in 1890.