François-Marie Raoult (/rɑːˈuːl/; 10 May 1830 – 1 April 1901) was a French chemist who conducted research into the behavior of solutions, especially their physical properties.

Raoult's earliest researches were physical in character, being largely concerned with the phenomena of the voltaic cell; later there was a period when more purely chemical questions engaged his attention.

[3] These two generalizations afforded a new method of determining the molecular weights of dissolved substances, and were utilized by Jacobus van 't Hoff and Wilhelm Ostwald, among other chemists, in support of the hypothesis of electrolytic dissociation in solutions.

Raoult's freezing-point depression method became even more useful after it was improved by Ernst Otto Beckmann and became a standard technique for determining molecular weights of organic substances.

[4] An account of Raoult's life and work was given by van 't Hoff in a memorial lecture delivered before the London Chemical Society on 26 March 1902.