Léon Péan de Saint-Gilles (4 January 1832 – 22 March 1862) was a French chemist who worked along with

Marcellin Berthelot Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (; 25 October 1827 – 18 March 1907) was a French chemist and Republican politician noted for the ThomsenBerthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substance ...

on chemical kinetics and equilibria and attempted a mathematical formulation. Péan de Saint-Gilles was born in a prominent Parisian family, son of notary Amand Péan and Eugénie Jars, and grand-nephew of Louis-Denis Péan de Saint-Gilles. Like most wealthy Parisians of the time he was tutored at home before receiving a degree. He set up his own analytical laboratory with the help of

Théophile-Jules Pelouze Théophile-Jules Pelouze (also known as Jules Pelouze, Théophile Pelouze, Theo Pelouze, or T. J. Pelouze, ; 26 February 180731 May 1867) was a French chemist. Life He was born at Valognes, and died in Paris. His father, Edmond Pelouze, was an ...

and began to conduct experiments on his own. His major work was on the use of

potassium permanganate Potassium permanganate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KMnO4. It is a purplish-black crystalline salt, that dissolves in water as K+ and , an intensely pink to purple solution. Potassium permanganate is widely used in the c ...

as an indicator in titrations involving ester formation with acids and alcohols. In his experiments with Berthelot, he determined that reactions did not reach absolute end compositions but rather reached equilibria which depended on the quantities of reactants. He moved to Cannes in 1861 as he began to suffer from tuberculosis. He married Pauline Thion de la Chaume, the daughter of another Paris notary, and they had two children. He died from tuberculosis at Cannes at the age of thirty.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pean De Saint-Gilles, Leon 1832 births 1862 deaths French chemists People from Paris