Moissan, Henri

Henri Moissan, in full Ferdinand-Frédéric-Henri Moissan, (born Sept. 28, 1852, Paris, France—died Feb. 20, 1907, Paris), French chemist who received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the isolation of the element fluorine and the development of the Moissan electric furnace.

After attending the Museum of Natural History and the School of Pharmacy in Paris, Moissan became professor of toxicology (1886) and of inorganic chemistry (1889) at the School of Pharmacy and professor of inorganic chemistry (1900) at the Sorbonne. He took up the study of fluorine compounds in 1884. Two years later, by electrolyzing a solution of potassium fluoride in hydrofluoric acid, he prepared the highly reactive gas fluorine. He made a full study of the properties of the element and its reactions with other elements.

In 1892 Moissan developed the electric arc furnace and used it to prepare numerous new compounds and to vaporize substances previously regarded as infusible. He devised a commercially profitable method of producing acetylene. Although he claimed to have synthesized diamonds in his furnace (1893), his success is now seriously doubted.

Moissan’s scientific works include Le Four électrique (1897; “The Electric Furnace”), Le Fluor et ses composés (1900; “Fluorine and Its Compounds”), and Traité de chimie minérale, 5 vol. (1904–06; “Treatise on Inorganic Chemistry”).