View source for Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils

{{Short description|French chemist}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils
|image             =Collet-Descotils.png
|image_size        = 150
|caption           = Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils
|birth_date        = {{birth date|1773|11|21|df=y}}
|birth_place       = [[Caen]], [[France]]
|residence         =
|nationality       =
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1815|12|6|1773|11|21|df=y}}
|death_place       = [[Paris]], [[France]]
|field             =
|work_institution  =
|alma_mater        =  [[École des Mines de Paris]]
|doctoral_advisor  =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for          =
|prizes             =
|religion           =
|footnotes          =
}}
'''Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils''' (21 November 1773 in [[Caen]] – 6 December 1815 in [[Paris]]) was a French chemist. He studied in the [[École des Mines de Paris]], and was a student and friend of [[Louis Nicolas Vauquelin]].
He is best known for confirming the discovery of [[chromium]] by Vauquelin, and for independently discovering [[iridium]] in 1803.<ref name=hunt>{{cite journal | title = A History of Iridium | first = L. B. | last = Hunt | journal = Platinum Metals Review | volume = 31 | issue = 1 | year = 1987 | url = http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/dynamic/article/view/pmr-v31-i1-032-041 | accessdate = 2008-09-15 | pages = 32–41 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110609193607/http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/dynamic/article/view/pmr-v31-i1-032-041 | archive-date = 2011-06-09 | url-status = dead }}</ref>
In 1806, Collet-Descotils misidentified erythronium, a new element discovered in Mexico by [[Andrés Manuel del Río]], thinking that it was chromium. This resulted in [[Alexander von Humboldt]] rejecting Del Río's discovery.<ref>{{cite journal| first =H.-V. | last = Collet-Descotils | title = Analyse de la mine brune de plomb de Zimapan, dans le royaume du Mexique, envoyée par M. Humboldt, et dans laquelle M. Del Rio dit avoir découvert un nouveau métal. | journal = Ann. Chim.| date = 1805 | volume =53 | pages=  268–271 | url = https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65696443/f270.item}}</ref> The same element was rediscovered thirty years later in Sweden and renamed as [[vanadium]].
In 1815, a few months before his death, he got the position of director of [[École des Mines de Paris]], in charge of transferring the school to a new building.  He is buried in the 10th Division of the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] of Paris.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.appl-lachaise.net/appl/article.php3?id_article=1536 |title=COLLET DES COTILS (ou Descotils) Hippolyte (1773–1815) |website=www.appl-lachaise.net |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318191336/http://www.appl-lachaise.net/appl/article.php3?id_article=1536 |archive-date=2014-03-18}}</ref>
== References ==
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[[Category:1773 births]]
[[Category:1815 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
[[Category:Scientists from Caen]]
[[Category:19th-century French chemists]]