Mond collaborated with his father in the discovery of the gaseous compound nickel carbonyl. He perfected the industrial production of iron carbonyl, and discovered the first derivative of a metallic carbonyl (cobalt nitroso-carbonyl) and a new ruthenium carbonyl.[4] For a time he made trials of scientific farming. Following his father's heritage he became a director of Brunner Mond & Company and because of a connection with nickel mines in Canada he was a trustee of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.[3]
Archaeology
Mond then took an interest in the archaeology of Ancient Egypt and worked with some of the major archaeologists of the time, including Percy Newberry, Howard Carter, Arthur Weigall and Alan Gardiner. With the last named he worked on the Theban Necropolis. After World War I he was involved with the preservation of the tomb of Ramesses I.[3] He built up a considerable collection of artefacts which he bequeathed to the British Museum. He also performed archaeological work in Palestine, France and the Channel Islands and assisted in the foundation of a British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Robert Mond also took an interest in model soldiers building up a collection of 900 figures representing all the regiments in Napoleon's army.[3]
Robert Mond married twice. In 1898 he married Helen Levis and they had two daughters but Helen died in 1905, following the birth of their second daughter in 1901. In her memory Mond founded the Infants' Hospital in Vincent Square, London. In 1922 he married Marie-Louise Guggenheim (née Le Manac'h) of Belle-Île-en-Terre, Brittany and following this spent more of his life in France.
