Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk

Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk (4 March 1752 – 3 April 1837) was a Dutch businessman and an amateur chemist.

He married Marie Cornelia Loten in 1770 and joined the business of his father-in-law in Amsterdam until 1816 and lived in Niewersluis subsequently.

Along with his physician friend Jan Deiman, he conducted experiments and wrote 35 papers between 1778 and 1818.

Using an electrostatic generator, he was able to split water with gold as an electrode (acting as a catalyst as examined in studies in the 21st century[1]) and was able to identify the components oxygen and hydrogen.

[4][5] Along with Cornelis Rudolphus Theodorus Krayenhoff he examined cures and medical applications of electricity.

Electrostatic generator at Teyler's museum that was used for many of the experiments