Around 1670, British Boyle studied the relationship between seawater salinity and seawater density, which was the beginning of marine chemistry research. In 18 19, Marset discovered that there was an almost constant proportional relationship between the contents of the main components in the world ocean seawater. In 1884, dietmar published his analysis results of 77 seawater samples collected by the British research ship Challenger from 1873 to 1876, which further confirmed the constant ratio relationship between the contents of the main dissolved components in the world ocean seawater. About 1900, Danish scholars such as Knudsen established a method for measuring chlorine, salinity and density. In 1930s, Buch, Finland established the calculation method of carbonate concentration in seawater. Harvey of Britain systematically studied the nutritional effects of inorganic salts of ammonia, phosphorus, silicon and other elements in seawater on plankton, and published his book "Chemistry and Fertility of Seawater" in 1955, which became a classic work of marine biological productivity chemistry at that time.

From 1959 to 1962, Swedish physical chemist Silong and American geochemist Garel made some quantitative studies on various chemical equilibria in seawater by using the principles of physical chemistry, which made chemical oceanography gradually transition from qualitative description stage to quantitative theoretical research stage, and initially established the theoretical system of marine physical chemistry. At the same time, with the in-depth study of some element geochemistry problems, marine geochemistry has gradually formed, which studies the chemical processes of various elements in the ocean and is an important branch of chemical oceanography.

According to 197 1 ~ 1980 Ten-year Plan of International Ocean Survey, a series of topics such as "ocean profile geochemistry" have been studied, the temporal and spatial changes of many substances in the ocean have been clarified, and a global model to reveal the characteristics of marine chemistry has been put forward, which has made chemical oceanography get new development. The current research plan of "marine instantaneous tracer" will explore some laws in the ocean more deeply.

Marine chemistry studies chemical problems in the ocean from the perspective of distribution, change and migration of chemical substances, so it has outstanding regional characteristics. It not only studies various macroscopic chemical processes in the ocean, such as the chemical process when different water masses are mixed, the material exchange process between the ocean and the atmosphere, the chemical flux and chemical process between seawater and the seabed, etc. It also studies small-scale chemical processes in marine environment, such as surface adsorption process, complexation process and ion-pair association process.

Because the ocean is a comprehensive natural system, physical changes, chemical changes, biological changes and geological changes often occur in any spatial unit of the ocean at the same time, and these changes are often intertwined. Therefore, chemical oceanography should permeate and cooperate with physical oceanography, biological oceanography and geological oceanography in order to study oceanography comprehensively.

Marine resource chemistry mainly studies the chemical problems of developing and utilizing chemical resources from marine water bodies, marine organisms and seabed sediments. The early development of marine resources is to extract inorganic substances from seawater, including salt making, brine or comprehensive utilization of seawater, such as extracting mirabilite, potassium salt, bromine, magnesium salt or other inorganic substances with low content; In modern times, it has also studied the desalination of seawater, the extraction of uranium from seawater and the separation of natural products from marine life.

In addition, there are some chemical problems to be solved urgently in the development of marine engineering facilities, such as the corrosion of metals in seawater and the prevention of biological pollution of equipment or hull, which are also the contents of marine chemistry research.