Eugène-Melchior Péligot (24 March 1811 – 15 April 1890), also known as Eugène Péligot, was a French

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

who isolated the first sample of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

metal in 1841. Péligot proved that the black powder of Martin Heinrich Klaproth was not a pure metal (it was an oxide of uranium, known in chemistry as UO₂). He then succeeded in producing pure uranium metal by reducing uranium tetrachloride (UCl₄) with

potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...

metal in 1841.Celestial Bodies
Today better methods have been found. Péligot was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of analytical chemistry at the Institut National Agronomique. He collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and together they discovered the methyl radical during

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

s on wood spirit ( methanol). The terminology " methyl alcohol" was created by both chemists from "wood wine". They also prepared the gaseous dimethyl ether, and many

ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an acid (either organic or inorganic) in which the hydrogen atom (H) of at least one acidic hydroxyl group () of that acid is replaced by an organyl group (R). These compounds contain a distin ...

s. In 1838, they successfully transformed camphor into ''p''-cymene using phosphorus pentoxide. In 1844 he synthesized

chromium(II) acetate Chromium(II) acetate hydrate, also known as chromous acetate, is the coordination compound with the chemical formula, formula Cr2(CH3CO2)4(H2O)2. This formula is commonly abbreviated Cr2(OAc)4(H2O)2. This red-coloured compound features a quadruple ...

, which was much later recognized (by F. Albert Cotton in 1964) to be the first chemical compound which contains a quadruple bond.Cotton, F. A.; Walton, R. A. "Multiple Bonds Between Metal Atoms" Oxford (Oxford): 1993. .

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Photograph of Peligot
1811 births 1890 deaths 19th-century French chemists Scientists from Paris Uranium Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery {{France-chemist-stub

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