Pierre-François Chabaneau
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Pierre-François Chabaneau (27 June 1754 – 18 February 1842) 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 spent much of his life working in
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. He was one of the first chemists to succeed in producing malleable
platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...
. Chabaneau was born in
Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, and died near his home village at the age of 88 years.


Early life

Chabaneau was born in 1754 in Nontron, a village in the
Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...
department of France. His uncle, a member of the order of Saint Anthony, encouraged him to study theology. While Chabaneau excelled in his studies, his distaste for metaphysical speculation led him to antagonize his teachers, which in turn caused him to be expelled from school. Sympathetic towards Chabaneau's state of poverty, the director of a
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
college in Passy offered him a position as a mathematics professor, despite Chabaneau having only a basic understanding of arithmetic. In studying the material for the next day's lessons, Chabaneau taught himself algebra and geometry. His academic interest soon spread to physics,
natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
, and chemistry. At the age of twenty, Chabaneau was convinced to join the newly established ''Real Seminario Patriotico'' at Vergara to teach French and physics by brothers Fausto and Juan José Elhuyar. The two brothers, who later made a name for themselves by isolating metallic
tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...
, had been hired by the Count of Peñaflorida, who had sent them to France to find professors for the Vergara Seminary.


Platinum research

After the Elhuyar brothers isolated metallic tungsten in 1783, Chabaneau collaborated with them in researching
platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...
. This did not last long, though, as the brothers had been appointed Directors General of Mining, and soon left Spain for South America.
King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
created a public chair of mineralogy, physics and chemistry for Chabaneau in Madrid and provided him with a laboratory for his research. The Count d'Aranda secured the government's entire supply of platinum for Chabaneau's laboratory. Chabaneau was able to easily remove most of platinum's natural impurities, including gold, mercury, lead, copper, and iron, leading him to believe that he was working with pure platinum. However, the metal displayed inconsistent characteristics. At times it was malleable, yet at times it was highly
brittle A material is brittle if, when subjected to stress, it fractures with little elastic deformation and without significant plastic deformation. Brittle materials absorb relatively little energy prior to fracture, even those of high strength. ...
. Sometimes it was entirely incombustible, yet sometimes it burned readily. These inconsistencies were a result of various impurities:
rhodium Rhodium is a chemical element; it has symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is a very rare, silvery-white, hard, corrosion-resistant transition metal. It is a noble metal and a member of the platinum group. It has only one naturally occurring isot ...
,
palladium Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...
, osmium,
iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...
, and ruthenium. These elements would later come to be known as the
platinum group The platinum-group metals (PGMs) are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table. These elements are all transition metals in the d-block (groups 8, 9, and 10, periods 5 and 6). The six platinum-group ...
metals, but at the time of Chabaneau's research, they had not yet been discovered. So frustrated was Chabaneau by his research that, in 1786, he lost his temper and smashed all of his equipment, exclaiming, "Away with it all! I'll smash the whole business; you shall never again get me to touch the damned metal!" Nevertheless, three months later Chabaneau presented the Count d'Aranda with a 10 cm cube of pure malleable platinum. His process, involving powder metallurgy and intense heating, was kept secret until 1914.


Platinum age and death

Chabaneau realized that the sheer difficulty of working with platinum would lend value to objects made from it. He and Don Joaquín Cabezas carried on a lucrative business producing platinum ingots and utensils. This marked the beginning of what is now known as the "platinum age in Spain," during which nearly 18,000  troy ounces of malleable platinum were produced in a span of 22 years. The platinum age ended in 1808 when Chabaneau's laboratory was destroyed during Napoleon's second invasion. In 1799, Chabaneau returned to France seeking rest near his native village of Nontron. There he remained until January 1842, when he died at the age of 88 years.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chabaneau, Pierre-Francois 1754 births 1842 deaths 19th-century French chemists 18th-century French chemists