2026/07/30 by Jaime Wisniak
paper · doi:10.22201/fq.18708404e.2026.3.89173
crossref issued 2026/07/30 · crossref published 2026/07/30 · crossref published-online 2026/07/30 · crossref created 2026/07/31 · crossref deposited 2026/07/31 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31
Abstract Eugène-Alexander Joly (1845-1897) was a French chemist who studied in detail the synthesis, properties, uses, and applications of several chemical elements, in particular, boron, ruthenium, and osmium. He showed that many of the results previously reported by other chemists were mistaken because they had used impure samples. For boron, for example, Joly found that the preparation method of Wöhler and Deville, at high temperature and in the presence of carbon, led to the formation of small amounts of the boride AlB6. Joly developed a dosage procedure for boric acid using coloring reagent such as helianthin, tropaeolin 00, and orange #3. Joly, alone or with Debray, prepared a large number of ruthenium derivatives, among them, ruthenium dioxide, hyper ruthenium acid, rutheniates, heptaruthenates, chlororuthenates, nitroso chlororuthenates and their salts, oxygenated compounds, etc. With Vèzes and Leidié, they developed a process for the synthesis of the double nitrites of ruthenium with sodium and with potassium. Joly determined that the atomic mass of ruthenium was 101.5 (today 101.7) and the relative density of pure ruthenium, molten and pulverized, was 12.063 (0 oC).