July 1, 1881 - Death of Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville, considered one of the great chemists of the 19th century

In 1844, after graduating as doctor of medicine and doctor of science, he was appointed to organise the new Faculty of Science in Besançon (France), where he was professor of chemistry and dean from 1845 to 1851.

His research focused on the study of turpentine oil and Tolu balsam. From the latter, he obtained toluene by dry distillation (1844). However, his most important works were perhaps in inorganic and thermal chemistry.

In 1849, he discovered anhydrous nitric acid (nitrogen pentoxide), an interesting substance as the first of the so-called "anhydrous" monobasic acids.

In 1854, he succeeded in obtaining metallic aluminium and finally devised a method by which the metal could be prepared on a large scale with the aid of sodium, the manufacture of which he also developed.

He made fruitful contributions:

• Together with Friedrich Wöhler, he discovered silicon nitride (1857) and investigated the allotropic forms of silicon and boron.
• With Jules Henri Debray, he worked on platinum metals, the aim being, on the one hand, to prepare them pure and, on the other, to find a suitable metal for the standard metre of the International Metric Commission in Paris.
• With Louis Joseph Troost, they worked out a method for determining vapour densities at temperatures up to 1,400 degrees Celsius.

His work in general chemistry entitles him to be considered one of the great chemists of the second half of the 19th century. Not only because of the above, but also because he discovered the phenomenon of dissociation and because of his research on this subject, for which he developed the "Deville hot and cold tube" instrument, worked on the metallurgy of aluminium (discovered by Wöhler in 1827) to prepare it by the decomposition of sodium chloride of aluminium with metallic sodium and the artificial preparation of minerals, especially apatite, isohorphic minerals and crystalline oxides.

In the technical field he worked on the use of petroleum and heavy oils as fuels, where he conceived the use of crude oil as a fuel for steam production.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville