Henri Moissan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Henri Moissan | |
 Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan
|
|
| Born | September 28, 1852 Paris, France |
|---|---|
| Died | February 20, 1907 (aged 54) Paris, France |
| Residence | France |
| Nationality | France |
| Fields | Chemist |
| Institutions | Sorbonne |
| Alma mater | Collège de Meaux École Pratique des Haute Études |
| Doctoral advisor | Pierre Paul Dehérain |
| Doctoral students | Paul Lebeau |
| Known for | Isolation of fluorine |
| Notable awards |  Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1906) |
Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan (September 28, 1852 – February 20, 1907) was a French chemist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds.
Contents |
[edit] Preparation of fluorine
Fluorine's existence had been well known for many years, but all attempts to prepare it had failed – and some experimenters had died in the attempt.
Moissan eventually succeeded (in 1886) in preparation by electrolyzing a solution of potassium hydrogen fluoride (KHF2) in liquid hydrogen fluoride (HF). The mixture was needed because hydrogen fluoride is a non-conductor. The device was built with platinum/iridium electrodes in a platinum holder and cooled the apparatus to −50 °C. The result was to completely isolate the hydrogen produced from the negative electrode from the fluorine produced at the positive one.[1][2] This is essentially still the way fluorine is produced today. For this achievement he was in 1906 awarded the Nobel Prize.
[edit] Further studies
Moissan went on to study fluorine chemistry in great detail, contributed to the development of the electric arc furnace and attempted to use pressure to synthesize diamonds from the more common form of carbon. In 1893, Moissan began studying fragments of a meteorite found in Meteor Crater near Diablo Canyon in Arizona. In these fragments he discovered minute quantities of a new mineral and, after extensive research, Moissan concluded that this mineral was made of silicon carbide. In 1905, this mineral was named Moissanite, in his honor.
[edit] Life
The family Moissan originated from Toulouse and moved to Paris, where Moissan was born September 28, 1852, the son of a lesser officer of the eastern railway company and a seamstress. In 1864 they moved to Meaux, where he attended the local school. In 1870 he left the school without the "grade universitaire" necessary to attend the university. He started working at a chemist in Paris where he was able to save a person intoxicated with arsenic. He decided to study chemistry and started first at the laboratory of Edmond Frémy and later at that of Pierre Paul Dehérain. Dehérain argued him into an academic career. The baccalauréat which was necessary to study at the university Moissan obtained in 1874 after a failed attempt. During his time in Paris he became friend of the chemist Alexandre Léon Étard and botanist Vasque.
He published his first scientific paper about the carbon dioxide and oxygen metabolism in plants with Dehérain in 1874. He left plant physiology and turned towards inorganic chemistry and his research on pyrophoric iron was well received by the two most prominent French inorganic chemists of that time, Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville and Debray. Afer Moissan received his Ph.D. in 1880, his friend Landrine offered him a position at an analytic laboratory. His marriage to Léonie Lugan took place in 1882. They had a son in 1885. During the 1880s Moissan was focused on fluorine chemistry and especially the production of fluorine itself. He had no laboratory of his own, but used several laboratories, for example that of 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. The electrolysis of hydrogen fluoride yielded fluorine on June 26, 1886. The French academy of science sent three representatives, Marcellin Berthelot, Henri Debray and Edmond Frémy, to prove the results. Moissan was unable to reproduce his results, due to the fact that the hydrogen fluoride did not contain any traces of potassium fluoride, as in the previous experiment. After resolving the problem and demonstrating the production of fluorine several times, he was awarded a prize of 10,000 francs. The following years till 1891 he focused on the research of fluorine chemistry. He discovered numerous fluorine compounds, for example together with Paul Lebeau SF6 in 1901. His research in the production of boron and artificial diamonds and the development of an electrically heated oven which was capable to reach 3500°C using 2200 Ampere at 80 Volt followed until 1900.
His newly developed arc furnace opened the road to obtain borides and carbides of numerous elements, which was another research area of Moissan.
[edit] Death
He died suddenly in Paris in February 1907, shortly after his return from receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm. His death was attributed to an acute appendicitis. It is not known whether his experiments with fluorine contributed to his early death.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ H. Moissan (1886). "Action d'un courant électrique sur l'acide fluorhydrique anhydre". Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences 102: 1543-1544.
- ^ H. Moissan (1886). "Sur la décomposition de l'acide fluorhydrique par un courant électrique". Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences 103: 202.
- A.G. Morachevskii (2002). "Henri Moissan (To 150th Anniversary of His Birthday)". Journal Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry 75 (10): 1720-1722. doi:.
- G. V. Samsonov, V. A. Obolonchik (1886). "Frederic Henri Moissan, on the 120th anniversary of his birth". Journal Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics 11 (9): 766-768. doi:.
- Tressaud, Alain (Oct 2006). "Henri Moissan: winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1906". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 45 (41): 6792-6. doi:. PMID 16960820.
- Royère, C (Mar 1999). "[The electric furnace of Henri Moissan at one hundred years: connection with the electric furnace, the solar furnace, the plasma furnace?]". Annales pharmaceutiques françaises 57 (2): 116-30. PMID 10365467.
- Flahaut, J (Mar 1999). "[The scientific contributions of Moissan]". Annales pharmaceutiques françaises 57 (2): 101-7. PMID 10365465.
- Viel, C (Mar 1999). "[Henri Moissn, first French Nobel prize winner in chemistry: the man, the picture collector]". Annales pharmaceutiques françaises 57 (2): 94-100. PMID 10365464.
- Wery, P (Jan 1986). "[Fluoride is 100 years old]". Médecine et hygiène 45 (1685): 138. PMID 3543628.
- Kempler, K (Mar 1982). "[On the 75th anniversary of the death of Henri Moissan]". Orvosi hetilap 123 (12): 740-1. PMID 7041048.
- Kyle, R A; Shampo M A (Oct 1979). "Henri Moissan". JAMA 242 (16): 1748. PMID 384036.
- FABRE, R (May 1953). "[Ceremonies commemorating the centenary of the birth of Henri Moissan.]". Annales pharmaceutiques françaises 11 (5): Suppl, 65-7. PMID 13080837.
[edit] External links
- Biography Biography from Nobelprize.org website
- Scientific genealogy
- Biography
|
||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Moissan, Henri |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Moissan, Ferdinand Frederick Henri |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | French Chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 28, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris, France |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 20, 1907 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Paris, France |
