Inorganic chemistry and high-temperature methods · 1852–1907

Henri Moissan

Moissan worked in Paris on chemistry at extremes: first on fluorine, where the difficulty is that the product attacks everything, and then with an electric arc furnace that reached temperatures ordinary furnaces could not, producing carbides, borides and silicides and enabling the reduction of stubborn oxides. His claimed synthesis of diamond was not reproducible and is now generally regarded as an artifact, which sits oddly beside work of otherwise exceptional care.