How did Chemistry begin?

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How did Chemistry begin?

Alchemists

The alchemists of the 16th and 17th century tried to change one substance into another for the society including changing ‘base metals’ such as lead into gold. They also discovered arsenic and zinc and others

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle was the first to define an element.

Priestly and Lavoisier

Joseph Priestly was an English chemist – by collecting gas produced when mercury (II) oxide is decomposed by heating, and thus being the first person to isolate elemental oxygen.

Antoine Lavoisier was investigating the oxidation of mercury in air. Lavoisier measured the mass of reactants and products in the reaction. He demonstrated that oxygen was the component of air responsible for the apparent increase in mass observed in combustion reactions. Lavoisier’s contributed to the Law of Conservation of mass.

Davy

When the electrochemical cell had only just been invented, Davy began to experiment with electrolysis. Using a battery made from alternating zinc and copper plates in electrolyte solution, he extracted sodium and potassium metals from their molten salts in 1807.

Davy has used electrolysis to discover Barium, calcium and strontium. He also discovered magnesium and boron by using potassium, which is more reactive, to displace these elements from their compounds. He also showed iodine to be element and produced some of the first elemental aluminium.

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Dalton

He proposed that atoms were the fundamental particles of nature

  • All matter consists of indivisible atoms (we cannot divide a single atom) correct
  • Atoms of a particular element are identical in mass and have identical properties (no, isotopes exist which have different masses and have different properties)
  • Atoms of each element have a unique mass
  • Atoms are neither created or destroyed in reactions (not true, they can be in nuclear reactions)
  • Compounds are formed from the combination of the atoms of two or more elements
  • The proportion and kind of atoms is fixed in a given compounds
  • ...

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