Following medical studies and a period of teaching, Wurtz studied at Giessen and then at Strasbourg (1843). He became an assistant (1845) to Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas, whom he succeeded at the School of Medicine (1852). He was the first to occupy the chair of organic chemistry at the Sorbonne (1875).

His work on the acids of phosphorus led him to discover phosphorus oxychloride. In 1849 he synthesized the first organic derivative of ammonia, ethylamine, and six years later devised a method of preparing hydrocarbons from sodium and an alkyl halide, a reaction named for him. Study of glycerol led him into researches of glycols and the synthesis of many important compounds, including choline. In 1867 he and August Kekule prepared phenol. With Marcellin Berthelot he succeeded in making Paris one of Europe's leading centres of chemical education.