Discovery of nitrogen trichloride
Descubrimiento del tricloruro de nitrógeno
- Date
- 1812 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Pierre Louis Dulong
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Dulong first prepared nitrogen trichloride, an extremely unstable compound that explodes on exposure to light, heat or friction; Dulong himself lost fingers and an eye in two explosions during his experiments.
The exact laboratory where Dulong made the discovery could not be confirmed; in 1812 he was working in Paris, before his time at the École Polytechnique.
What it led to
- Early warning about the hazards of nitrogen halides
- The 1813 accident that temporarily blinded Humphry Davy and led him to hire Michael Faraday