full name Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan (1852–1907), French chemist and Nobel laureate. Born in Paris, he was educated at the University of Paris. Moissan worked for some years as a pharmacist and was a lecture assistant and senior demonstrator (1879–83), and professor of toxicology (1886–89) and of inorganic chemistry (1889–1900) at the École Supérieure de Pharmacie. From 1900 to 1907 he was a professor at the Sorbonne.

Moissan was able to prepare free FLUORINE (q.v.) in 1886 despite the substance’s extreme reactivity. He liquefied fluorine at –185° C, which led to the discovery of numerous compounds of the element. He also devised techniques to extract BORON, (q.v.) of greater purity than previously possible. His attempts to make diamonds led to the development (1892) of an electric arc furnace (the Moissan electric furnace) that made him a founder of high-temperature chemistry. He prepared silicon carbide or carborundum and produced ACETYLENE, (q.v.) from calcium carbide; both products and techniques had immediate industrial applications (see ABRASIVE,).

Moisson’s published works include Le four électrique (1897; The Electric Arc Furnace), Le fluor et ses composés (1900; Fluorine and Its Compounds), and Traité de chimie minerale (5 vol., 1904–6; Treatise on Inorganic Chemistry).

In 1906, Moissan was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry “for isolating and investigating the chemical element fluorine, and for introducing the electric furnace into the service of science.”