French chemist · 1852–1907
Henri Moissan
Henri Moissan isolated fluorine, the most reactive element, in 1886. Chemists had tried for 70 years; several had been badly injured. He won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it.
How Fluorine was found
Fluorine attacks almost everything, including glass and most metals, so any container or electrode was destroyed. Moissan dissolved potassium hydrogen fluoride in liquid hydrogen fluoride and electrolysed it at about −50 °C in a platinum–iridium U-tube sealed with fluorite stoppers.
On 26 June 1886 a pale yellow-green gas appeared at the anode. It set fire to silicon on contact. When the Academy of Sciences sent a committee to check, the demonstration failed at first; it worked once he made fresh equipment.
Life and career
Born 1852 · Died 1907
Moissan was born in Paris and began as a pharmacist’s apprentice. He taught at the School of Pharmacy and later at the Sorbonne.
He developed the electric arc furnace, which reached about 3,500 °C and let him make carbides, borides and other compounds never seen before. He found natural silicon carbide in a meteorite; the mineral is now called moissanite. He died months after receiving the Nobel Prize.
Also known for
- The electric arc furnace
- Moissanite, named after him
- 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 1886.