[2] Péligot proved that the black powder of Martin Heinrich Klaproth was not a pure metal (it was an oxide of uranium, known in chemistry as UO2).

[5] Péligot was a professor of analytical chemistry at the Institut National Agronomique.

He collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and together they discovered the methyl radical during experiments on wood spirit (methanol).

The terminology "methyl alcohol" was created by both chemists from "wood wine".

In 1844 he synthesized chromium(II) acetate,[6][7] which was much later recognized (by F. Albert Cotton in 1964) to be the first chemical compound which contains a quadruple bond.