Senderens, Jean Baptiste

Born Jan. 27, 1856, in Bar-bachen; died there Sept. 27, 1937. French chemist. Corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1922).

In experiments beginning in 1897, Senderens, together with P. Sabatier, achieved the catalytic hydrogenation, reduction, and dehydrogenation of organic compounds in the gaseous phase over finely dispersed metal and oxide catalysts. He studied the catalytic dehydration of alcohols and the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes and ketones in the presence of vanadium oxides, silver, and zinc. Senderens also investigated the decomposition of organic acids with the formation of ketones in the presence of oxide catalysts, catalytic reactions for the formation of esters, and the decomposition of formic acid.