Paul Sabatier

Born Nov. 5, 1854, in Carcassonne; died Aug. 14, 1941, in Toulouse. French chemist. Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1913). Sabatier graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Toulouse in 1877. He was a professor at the University of Toulouse from 1884 to 1930.

Sabatier’s work in hydrogenation catalysis facilitated the formation of the catalytic organic synthesis industry. In 1897, together with J. B. Senderens, he obtained ethane by heating a mixture of ethylene with hydrogen in the presence of a nickel catalyst. In 1909 he carried out the vapor-phase catalytic hydrogénation of crotonic, oleic, and elaidic acids. From 1907 to 1911, working with the French chemist A. Mailhe, Sabatier demonstrated that magnesium, zinc, and cadmium and their oxides cause dehydrogenation of alcohols, whereas the oxides of aluminum, tungsten, and silicon cause dehydration. Subsequently, he also studied catalytic condensation and isomeriza-tion reactions in the presences of oxides and chlorides, catalytic addition and cleavage reactions of hydrogen halides, and the catalytic cracking of heavy hydrocarbons.

Sabatier received a Nobel Prize in 1912.