Paul Sabatier - Organic Chemists, Birthday and Personal Life

He was born on November 5, 1854, in Carcassonne in Southern France.

After attending the local Lycée, he sat for the entrance exams of ‘École Normale Supérieure’ and ‘École Polytechnique’ and after being selected by both the institutes he opted to join the former.

He began attending the ‘École Normale Supérieure’ from 1874 and graduated after three years as the topper in his class.

After completing graduation, he worked for a year as a teacher of physics in a local school in Nîmes.

In 1878 he joined ‘Collège de France’ as a laboratory assistant of Marcellin Berthelot, under whom he completed his ‘Doctor of Science’ in 1880. His thesis was based on the thermochemistry of sulfur and metallic sulfides.

After his doctorate, he served as maître de conference in physics in the faculty of sciences at the ‘University of Bordeaux’ for a year.

In January 1882, he joined the ‘University of Toulouse’ and taught physics. In 1884 Sabatier became a professor of chemistry at the university, a position he held for decades till his retirement in 1930.

In 1887 he founded a multidisciplinary journal, ‘Annales de la Faculté des Sciences de Toulouse’ along with Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, , E. Cosserat, Benjamin Baillaud, C. Fabre, T. Chauvin, Marie Henri Andoyer, G. Berson, A. Destrem and A. Legoux.

In 1905, the ‘University of Toulouse’ appointed him the Dean of its Faculty of Science.

His early research work included chemical and physical analysis of chlorides, sulphides, chromates and copper compounds.

Sabatier investigated the nitrosodisulfonic acid and its salts and examined the oxides of nitrogen. He made intrinsic analysis of absorption spectra and partition coefficients.

During his initial analysis of the phenomenon of catalysis, he figured out the inconsistencies in the physical theory of English scientist Michael Faraday. Sabatier developed his own chemical theory that postulated the creation of unstable mediums.

Almost the entire area of catalytic syntheses in organic chemistry was analysed by him, he examined hundreds of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions.

He found that nickel when used in small quantity as a catalyst aided in hydrogenation of most compounds of carbon. He also pointed out that apart from nickel there are many other metals like cobalt, platinum, copper, palladium and iron that possess catalytic activity, albeit in lower intensity.

He went into investigating catalytic hydration and dehydration and analysed the usual activity of several catalysts in various reactions, thereby studying the feasibleness of each.

In 1913 he published his most notable book, ‘La Catalyse en Chimie Orgarnique’ (Catalysis in organic chemistry), the second edition of which was issued in 1920. The book was translated in English by E. E. Reid, which was published in 1923.

His most remarkable discovery, known as the ‘Sabatier reaction’ and also as the ‘Sabatier process’ that he brought out in the 1910s remains his primary invention. The process takes into account reaction of hydrogen with carbon dioxide at a high level of temperature and pressure with nickel as a catalyst to form water and methane.

Many of his inventions related to the application of metal hydrogenation catalysts, aided in forming the foundations of various industries such as that of oil hydrogenation, margarine oil and synthetic menthol.

In 1912, he received the ‘Nobel Prize in Chemistry’ along with French chemist Victor Grignard.

He was married to Mademoiselle Herail and the couple was blessed with four daughters. One of his daughters was married to renowned Italian chemist, Emilio Pomilio.

Sabatier was a reserved person and was quite fond of gardening and art.

Sabatier passed away on August 14, 1941.

The ‘Paul Sabatier University’ in Toulouse was named in his honour.