Henri Moissan was a distinguished French chemist born in Paris on September 28, 1852, who became one of the most influential inorganic chemists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He received his early education at the Collège de Meaux before pursuing scientific studies at the Museum of Natural History and the School of Pharmacy in Paris under prominent chemists Edmond Frémy and Pierre Paul Dehérain. Moissan established his academic career at the School of Pharmacy, where he was appointed Professor of Toxicology in 1886 and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in 1889, later becoming Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Sorbonne in 1900. His remarkable journey from a pharmacy trainee in 1871 to one of France's most celebrated chemists exemplifies his dedication to scientific inquiry and experimental mastery.
Moissan's most groundbreaking achievement was the successful isolation of elemental fluorine in 1886, a feat that had eluded chemists for nearly a century due to fluorine's extreme reactivity and the dangers involved in its production. Through meticulous electrolysis of potassium hydrogen fluoride in hydrofluoric acid, he finally produced the green-yellow gas at the anode, enabling systematic study of fluorine's properties and chemical behavior for the first time. This monumental discovery earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and opened the previously locked pathway to fluorine chemistry, which he and his colleagues subsequently explored for four years. Additionally, Moissan pioneered the development of the electric arc furnace, which revolutionized high-temperature chemistry by enabling temperatures exceeding 3,000°C, far surpassing the previous limit of 1,600°C and allowing for the preparation of numerous previously inaccessible compounds and materials.
Moissan's scientific legacy extends far beyond his isolation of fluorine, as he discovered numerous fluorine compounds including sulfur hexafluoride with Paul Lebeau in 1901 and identified moissanite, a rare mineral composed of silicon carbide. His prolific research output included over three hundred publications and major works such as Le Four Électrique (1897), Le Fluor et ses Composés (1900), and the five-volume Traité de Chimie Minérale (1904-1906), which established foundational knowledge in inorganic chemistry. As one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee, Moissan contributed significantly to standardizing chemical measurements and understanding. Though his life was tragically cut short in 1907, just months after receiving the Nobel Prize, Henri Moissan's pioneering work continues to influence modern chemistry, with his electric furnace principles still applied in industrial processes and his fluorine research forming the basis for countless applications from pharmaceuticals to materials science.
