Léon Aimé Claris Vignon

Léo Aimé Claris Vignon (1853-1925) was a French industrialist and chemist who investigated the chemistry of mannitan, mannitol, and their derivatives, and of cellulose oxycellulose, and hydrocellulose. Together with Philippe Barbier, they studied the synthesis of substituted safranins. Vignon developed a simple and fast process for the synthesis of mannitan, its properties, and derivatives; with Barbier they developed a method for synthesizing phenosafranine and its homologues, based on the reaction between amidobenzene with nitrobenzene, and with Dubois they studied the physiological effects of p-and m-phenylenediamine. Vignon developed analytical methods for determining CO2 as gas or in solution, acetone in methanol, phosphoric acid in superphosphate, tannin in grapes and wine, and mercury and copper in minute amounts.