The Sub-department of Inorganic Chemistry of the Lviv University was founded in 1895. Its teachers taught inorganic, analytical, and physical chemistry courses for students of the Departments of Philosophy, Medicine, and Science. Since 1945, the Sub-department has been a part of the Department of Chemistry and it has trained inorganic chemistry specialists.
The Sub-department is housed in the building of the Department of Chemistry at 6, Kyryla and Mefodiia Street. The area of the Sub-department’s premises had gradually increased from 200 m2 in 1895 to 1400 m2 in 2019. Currently, there are two lecture halls, two education laboratories (inorganic chemistry and computing), six research laboratories (melting, thermal, glass, metallographic, x-ray, physical properties laboratories).
The personnel of the Sub-department increased from three research scientists in 1895 (Professor, Assistant, Laboratory Assistant) to 56 in 2018 (four Professors, eight Associate Professors, two Heads of Laboratories, four Engineers, four Laboratory Assistants, 23 Researchers, 11 postgraduate students). From three (in 1970) to 35 (in 1990) full-time research scientists of the Sub-department worked to perform scientific works ordered by industrial and scientific organizations.
The Heads of the Sub-department: Professors B. Liakhovych (1896-1903), S. Tollochko (1905-1935), V. Tshebiatovskyi (1938-1945), Ye. Cherkashyn (1945-1968), Ye. Hladyshevskyi (1968-1989), O. Bodak (1989-2005), and R. Hladyshevskyi (since 2006).
Professors of the Sub-department and Doctors of Science: Z. Weiberg, V. Kemulia, Z. Klemensevych, Yu. Kuzma, O. Zarechniuk, R. Skolozdra, M. Myskiv, V. Pavliuk, B. Kotur, Y. Kalychak, B. Mykhalichko. Doctors of Science of the Sub-department: P.-B. Krypiakevych, V. Oliinyk, A. Fedorchuk, V. Babizhetskyi.
Teachers of the Sub-department, Candidates of Science: F. Derkach, O. Sobolieva, M. Tesliuk, I. Zalutskyi, D. Semenyshyn, V. Telehus, Ya. Yarmoliuk, A. Prevarskyi, O. Koshel, V. Kinzhybalo, I. Mokra, Z. Yaremko, L. Lysenko, V. Pecharskyi, Yu. Grin, P. Zavaliy, T. Protsailo, P. Starodub, V. Zaremba, G. Tyvanchuk, O. Kharchenko, Z. Shpyrka, V. Yartys, R. Rykhal, P. Salamakha, M. Konyk, G. Dmitriv, Yu. Tyvanchuk, O. Pavliuk, N. Muts, O. Zelinska, S. Pukas.
Candidaes of Science, Leading and Senior Researchers are working (or worked) at the Sub-department: V. Markiv, Y. Voroshylov, V. Burnashova, O. Zmii, T. Yanson, E. Melnyk, L. Akselrud, Ye. Marusyn, B. Belan, M. Maniako, O. Sichevych, M. Fedyna, L. Romaka, Yu Stadnyk, O. Protsyk, O. Oleksyn, O. Solohub, O. Miakush, V. Babizhetskyi, A. Horyn, P. Demchenko , Kh. Miliyanchuk, Ya. Tokaichuk, as well as highly qualified specialists Y. Horelenko and V. Davydov. About 120 persons worked at the positions of heads of laboratories, engineers, laboratory technicians and technicians at different times. A number of employees and postgraduate students of the Sub-department received positions in other sub-departments of the Lviv University or in other institutions and in other countries after defending their PhD theses.
Since 1945, the Sub-department has trained teachers and scientists for higher education institutions, chemistry teachers, specialists for chemical laboratories of scientific institutions and enterprises.
In the 80-ies of the last century, two branches of the Sub-department were functioning on the basis of the Physical-Mechanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Scientific and Production Amalgamation “Avtoprompokryttia”. In 1978, the Sub-department, together with the Department of Physics, established a branch at the Institute of Materials, which later became a separate Sub-department of Radio-electronic Material Science. In 1981-1994 at the department there was a budget research laboratory of problem “Physicochemical analysis of metallic systems and crystal chemistry of intermetallic compounds” Among the first Doctors of Sciences trained in the early XX century by S. Tollochko, who worked in the fields of inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical technology and later became professors, were Z. Klemensevych, V. Kemulia and Z. Weiberg. The training of doctors of science in the Sub-department resumed in the 1950s. As a result, 23 Candidates of Science defended their doctoral dissertations: Ye. Cherkashyn, E. Hladyshevskyi, P.-B. Krypiakevych, Y. Kuzma, O. Zarechniuk, O. Bodak, R. Skolozdra, M. Myskiv, V. Pavliuk, B. Kotur, V. Oliynyk, B. Mykhalichko, R. Hladyshevskyi, Y. Kalychak, A. Fedorchuk, V. Babizhetskyi and Y. Vorosyilov. V. Yartys, D. Semenyshyn, L. Vasylechko, I. Zavalii, L. Hulai, A. Stetskiv defended their dissertations while working in other institutions. In addition, four other Candidates of Science, graduates of theSub-department, were confirmed in the rank of a professor abroad: V. Pecharskyi and P. Zavalii (USA), Yu. Grin (Germany) and Yu. Filinchuk (Belgium).
In the first three decades, the scientific themes of the Sub-department were directed mainly to the study of Halychyna’s natural raw materials – oil, natural gases, salts and mineral waters, issues of organic, physical and analytical chemistry, chemical technology and metal chemistry. Since 1945, scientific work has been devoted to the problems of inorganic chemistry, in particular, the crystal chemistry of intermetallic compounds. The scientists of the Sub-department investigated the interaction of 60 chemical elements in about 2600 triple systems: constructed isothermal sections of state diagrams for almost 1100 systems, established the formation of more than 7000 new compounds, determined the crystalline structure of 6000 compounds belonging to 750 structural types, discovered 430 new structural types. Today, there are scientific groups working under the direction of Professors R. Hladyshevskyi, B. Kotura, M. Myskiv, and V. Pavliuk. Inorganic scientists, laureates of state awards: Yevhen Hladyshevskyi, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the USSR (1979), laureate of the USSR State Prize in Science and Technology (1984 ), Oksana Bodak, laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1976), laureate of the USSR State Prize in Science and Technology (1984), Professor Emeritus of the University of Lviv (2001), Marian Myskiv, Professor Emeritus of the Lviv University (2005), laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology (2007), Roman Hladyshevskyi, Bohdan Kotur, Volodymyr Pavliuk, Vasyl Zaremba, Yurii Stadnyk, laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology (2008) are a part of the creative team for the cycle of works “Intermetalides, hydrides and oxides as a basis of new energy-saving materials”.
Scientific Patrons of the Sub-department are: M. Bielov, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Crystallography, Head of the Sub-department of Crystallography at the Moscow University, I. Frantsevych, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Materials Science, which now is named after him, as well as his associates, Academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. Yeremenko and V. Svechnikov, and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, G. Samsonov, V. Trzebiatowski – President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute for Low Temperatures and Structural Research, which now is named after him, E. Sokolovskaya and S. Dunaev – Heads of the Sub-department of General Chemistry at the Moscow University, V. Skopenko – Academician of NAS of Ukraine, Rector of the Kyiv University, Hero of Ukraine, S. Volkov – Academician of NAS of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, V. Panasiuk – Academician of NAS of Ukraine, Director of the Physical-Mechanical Institute, I. Yukhnovskyi – Academician of NAS of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, E. Parte, K. Ivoni and R. Fluckiger – Professors at the University of Geneva, V. Pecharskyi – Professor of the Sub-department of Materials Science, Iowa State University, Yu. Grin – the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids