Henri Moissan
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2014) |
Henri Moissan | |
---|---|
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1906) | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemistry |
Institutions | Sorbonne |
Doctoral advisor | Henri Debray[1] |
Doctoral students | Paul Lebeau Maurice Meslans |
Signature | |
Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan (28 September 1852 – 20 February 1907) was a French chemist and pharmacist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds.[a] Moissan was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee.[1][3]
Biography
Early life and education
Moissan was born in
Scientific career
Moissan became a trainee in pharmacy in 1871 and in 1872 he began working for a chemist in Paris, where he was able to save a person poisoned with arsenic. He decided to study chemistry and began first in the laboratory of Edmond Frémy at the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle, and later in that of Pierre Paul Dehérain at the École Pratique des Haute Études.[8][7] Dehérain persuaded him to pursue an academic career. He passed the baccalauréat, which was necessary to study at university, in 1874 after an earlier failed attempt. He also became qualified as first-class pharmacist at the École Supérieure de Pharmacie in 1879, and received his doctoral degree there in 1880.[7]
He soon climbed through the ranks of the School of Pharmacy, and was appointed Assistant Lecturer, Senior Demonstrator, and finally Professor of Toxicology by 1886. He took the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry in 1899. The following year, he succeeded Louis Joseph Troost as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Sorbonne.[9] During his time in Paris he became a friend of the chemist Alexandre Léon Étard and the botanist Vasque.[10] His marriage, to Léonie Lugan, took place in 1882. They had a son in 1885, named Louis Ferdinand Henri.
Death
Moissan died suddenly in Paris in February 1907, shortly after his return from receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm.[9] His death was attributed to an acute case of appendicitis, however, there is speculation that repeated exposure to fluorine and carbon monoxide also contributed to his death.[7]
Awards and honors
During his extensive career, Moissan authored more than three hundred publications, won the 1906
Research
Moissan published his first scientific paper, about carbon dioxide and oxygen metabolism in plants, with Dehérain in 1874. He left plant physiology and then turned towards inorganic chemistry; subsequently his research on pyrophoric iron was well received by the two most prominent French inorganic chemists of that time, Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville and Jules Henri Debray. After Moissan received his Ph.D. on cyanogen and its reactions to form cyanures in 1880, his friend Landrine offered him a position at an analytic laboratory.[4]
Isolation of fluorine
During the 1880s, Moissan focused on fluorine chemistry and especially the production of fluorine itself. The existence of the element had been well known for many years, but all attempts to isolate it had failed, and some experimenters had died in the attempt.[11][12] He had no laboratory of his own, but borrowed lab space from others, including Charles Friedel. There he had access to a strong battery consisting of 90 Bunsen cells which made it possible to observe a gas produced by the electrolysis of molten arsenic trichloride; the gas was reabsorbed by the arsenic trichloride.
Moissan eventually succeeded in isolating fluorine in 1886 by the
Further studies
Moissan contributed to the development of the
Footnotes
See also
References
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-0-8129-6788-3.
- PMID 18435984.
- ^ a b Greffe, Florence (18 November 2004). "Fonds 62 J HENRI MOISSAN" (PDF) (in French). Institut de France Academie des Sciences. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
- ^ S2CID 92299077.
- ^ JSTOR 890014.
- ^ PMID 16960820.
- ^ a b "Henri Moissan – Facts". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ^ a b c d Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1901–1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company. 1966. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- PMID 18435983.
- ^ Toon, Richard (1 September 2011). "The discovery of fluorine". Education in Chemistry. Vol. 48, no. 5. Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 148–151.
- .
- ^ H. Moissan (1886). "Action d'un courant électrique sur l'acide fluorhydrique anhydre" [The action of an electric current on anhydrous hydrofluoric acid]. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences (in French). 102: 1543–1544.
- ^ H. Moissan (1886). "Sur la décomposition de l'acide fluorhydrique par un courant électrique" [On the decomposition of hydrofluoric acid by an electric current]. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences (in French). 103: 202.
- .
- ^ "1906 Chemistry Nobelist Henri Moissan Spawned The Vast Arena Of Fluorine Chemistry". cen.acs.org. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ Moissan, Henri (1893). "Le diamant : conférence faite à la Société des amis de la science le 17 mai 1893" [The diamond: lecture to the Society of Friends of Science 17 May 1893] (in French). Europeana. Archived from the original on 13 February 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
- ^ "Atomic Weights and the International Committee – A Historical Review". Chemistry International. 2004.
Further reading
- Stock, Alfred (1907). "Henri Moissan". Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. 40 (4): 5099–5130. .
- Morachevskii, A. G. (2002). "Henri Moissan (To 150th Anniversary of His Birthday)". Journal Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry. 75 (10): 1720–1722. S2CID 195241814.
- Samsonov, G. V.; Obolonchik, V. A. (1886). "Frederic Henri Moissan, on the 120th anniversary of his birth". Journal Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 11 (9): 766–768. S2CID 135655156.
- Tressaud, Alain (October 2006). "Henri Moissan: winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1906". PMID 16960820.
- Royère, C. (March 1999). "The electric furnace of Henri Moissan at one hundred years: connection with the electric furnace, the solar furnace, the plasma furnace?". PMID 10365467.
- Kyle, R. A.; Shampo M A (October 1979). "Henri Moissan". PMID 384036.
- Flahaut, J. (March 1999). "The scientific contributions of Moissan". PMID 10365465.
- Viel, C. (March 1999). "Henri Moissn, first French Nobel prize winner in chemistry: the man, the picture collector". PMID 10365464.
- Wery, P. (January 1986). "Fluoride is 100 years old". PMID 3543628.
- Kempler, K. (March 1982). "[On the 75th anniversary of the death of Henri Moissan]". PMID 7041048.
- Fabre, R. (May 1953). "Ceremonies commemorating the centenary of the birth of Henri Moissan". PMID 13080837.
External links
- Henri Moissan on Nobelprize.org
- Scientific genealogy
- Books and letters by Henri Moissan in Europeana