Iodine discovery announcedIn 1813, a new substance - iodine - was announced at the French Institute by Nicolas Clément, in the name of its discoverer, Bernard Courtois. In 1811, Courtois had observed violet crystals with a metallic lustre that condensed from the vapour rising from the mother liquor of seaweed ash being leeched in sulphuric acid at his family's saltpetre business in Dijon. Although he made a preliminary investigation of this substance, he lacked the resources to fully research it. For this he turned to C.B. Desormes and Nicolas Clément. They suspected the substance was similar to chlorine, but confirmation of its nature as an element was made independently by Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, who named it iode, and Humphry Davy (1814).[Ref: Clément, N., Découverte d'une Substance Nouvelle dans l'Vareck par M.B. Courtois. Ann. Chim., 88, 304-310, 1813.] [Image: iodine crystals deposited from vapour on a col glass surface.] |
