Henri Moissan: The Chemist Who Tamed the World's Most Aggressive Element

On September twenty-eighth, eighteen fifty-two, Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan was born in Paris, France. He was a chemist, and his academic field was inorganic chemistry and electrochemistry.

Moissan's life's work culminated in one of history's most dangerous and sought-after chemical achievements: the isolation of the element fluorine. Fluorine is extremely reactive and toxic, and previous attempts to isolate it had resulted in serious accidents and even fatalities. In the late eighteen-eighties, Moissan developed a brilliant method. By dissolving hydrogen gas in liquid hydrogen fluoride and then performing electrolysis with platinum-iridium electrodes at very low temperatures, he finally succeeded in producing pure fluorine. This groundbreaking discovery, which required exceptional courage and precision, earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in nineteen hundred and six. Moissan also made significant contributions to the development of the electric arc furnace, which enabled the production of new metals and carbides.