Eugène-Melchior Péligot

Who was Eugène-Melchior Péligot?

Eugène-Melchior Péligot, also known as Eugène Péligot, was a French chemist who isolated the first sample of uranium metal in 1841.

Péligot proved that the black powder of Martin Heinrich Klaproth was not a pure metal. He then succeeded in producing pure uranium metal by reducing uranium tetrachloride with potassium metal. Today better methods have been found.

Péligot's salt is also named after him.

Péligot was a professor of analytical chemistry at the Institut National Agronomique. He collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and together they discovered the methyl radical during experiments on wood spirit. The terminology "methyl alcohol" was created by both chemists from "wood wine". They also prepared the gaseous dimethyl ether, and many esters. In 1838, they successfully transformed camphor into p-cymene using phosphorus pentoxide.

In 1844 he synthesized chromium acetate, which was much later recognized to be the first chemical compound which contains a quadruple bond.