Henri Moissan isolated fluoride

2006/09/01 Lasa Oiarbide, Aitzol - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika
• Historia

The more-green fluorite is a colorful mineral. It has been used for making ornaments.

MEC

The time and place were suitable for everyone who worked in science. In the 19th century, the current beliefs among scientists were gradually falling. And that caused the discoveries to happen in different fields of science. Marie Curie gave the testimony of this change of thought. He wrote and read at the Sorbonne the lecture of the beginning of the course 1906, in which he exposed the desire and desires of scientists to incorporate new ideas in that decade.

In that same decade, mathematician Lebesgue reflected on integrals. The integral defined earlier by Riemman did not serve to understand some aspects of the Fourier analysis and it was necessary to redefine it. He laid the foundation for the new integration theory while working at the Sorbonne.

Fluoride insulation by electrolysis

In another field of science, Chemistry, Henri Moissan by the periodic table

managed to isolate an element, the fluoride. This discovery earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in Stockholm and, once obtained, as if he had achieved all the goals of life, he died suddenly shortly afterwards.

The feat of isolating a chemical element was even more remarkable in the case of fluoride, since it is a gas and is the most electronegative and reactive element known. Think about the reactive, also eat glass.

Before Moissan other chemists tried to isolate fluoride, but did not succeed. George Gore, for example, suffered a terrible accident during his life. They say their lab exploded. From the calcium fluoride mineral (CaF 2) that isolated ^the gore fluor, also known as fluorite or emerald of Bohemia. However, as already indicated, fluoride is very reactive and, in addition, has greater reaction capacity in the gaseous state. Gore's laboratory combined fluoride gas with hydrogen gas, causing an explosive explosion.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contribution to the Periodic Table.

Nobel Foundation

To isolate fluoride, Moissan used electrolysis. Electrolysis with potassium fluoride (KF) and hydrofluoric acid (HF), but at the same time, carefully distributed fluoride gas and hydrogen gas to prevent explosion. Currently this process is still used to obtain fluoride.

Fluor, everyday theme

Fluoride is now known, especially because toothpastes contain compounds that contain fluoride. The compounds used to care for teeth are, among others, sodium fluoride (NaF), stamping difluoride ^(SnF 2) and sodium monofluorophosphate (Na ² PO ³ F). They therefore add fluoride to water sources in some cities as a measure of teething protection.

But it also has more uses. For example, cameras used to receive infrared light have special lenses with fluorite. Uranium hexafluoride (UF 6) is used for ^{the distribution of} uranium isotopes. Other compounds, such as dichlorodifluoromethane ^{(CF 2 Cl 2),} were used in aerosols and air conditioning, but their use is currently prohibited by affecting the ozone layer.

Fluoride

(Photo: Recent searches

The most reactive element known is fluorine, a small atom whose electrons orbit very close to the nucleus. That is why it complements its strong ties with other elements of nature, and therefore it is so difficult to isolate itself. It is the most abundant element among halogen. In nature it is more abundant than chlorine, bromine and iodine.

Henri Moissan

(Photo: Nobel Foundation)

Henri Moissan was born in Paris on 28 September 1852. He studied at the Natural History Museum in the laboratory of Edmond Fremy. He then directed a small laboratory at the School of Higher Studies Practices. He obtained a doctorate degree with a study on cyanogenic series, which allowed him to be a professor at the Sorbonne. He was professor of toxicology at the School of Pharmacy and later became director of it. He obtained the chair of inorganic chemistry at the University of Paris.