PIERRE JACQUES ANTOINE BÉCHAMP Contributions to chemistry

Abstract

Pierre Jacques Antoine Béchamp (1816-1908) was a French chemist and physician who studied the preparation, properties, and derivatives of collodion, and found that its behavior was similar to that of ethyl nitrate. He developed a very fast and efficient method for reducing nitrobenzene to aniline and naphthylamine with ferrous salts with ferrous salts and acetic acid, or acetic acid and iron filings. The reaction was probably done by nascent hydrogen (a prelude of the modern process of catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene). This discovery led to a better and more economical method for manufacturing aniline violet, fuchsine, and p-aminophenylarsonic acid (arsanylic acid). The synthesis of the latter opened the door for the preparation of many medicines based on arsenic. He also discovered the ability of sodium ethylate to reduce nitrobenzene. His study of the action of mineral acids, glacial acetic acid, zinc chloride, and caustic alkalis, on starch led to the synthesis of modified starches, soluble in water and different from dextrin.