French chemist · 1777–1857
Louis Jacques Thénard
Louis Jacques Thénard co-discovered boron with Gay-Lussac in 1808. He also discovered hydrogen peroxide and the pigment known as Thénard’s blue.
How Boron was found
Thénard and Gay-Lussac were close partners in the Paris experiments with potassium that followed Davy’s work. Heating boric acid with potassium in an iron tube, they produced a dark powder that would not decompose further, and identified it as the element in borax.
Shared the credit
The discovery is credited jointly to these scientists.
Life and career
Born 1777 · Died 1857
Thénard was born to a peasant family in La Louptière, in Champagne, and went to Paris to study. He worked as a laboratory boy for Vauquelin, who recognised his talent.
In 1802 he made cobalt aluminate, a durable blue pigment used in porcelain and painting. In 1818 he discovered hydrogen peroxide. He taught at the Collège de France and the École Polytechnique for decades, wrote a leading chemistry textbook and was made a baron.
Also known for
- Discovery of hydrogen peroxide
- Thénard’s blue (cobalt blue)
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 1808.