Antoine Lavoisier, Father of Chemistry

Born in Paris in the first half of the 18th century, Lavoisier occupies an essential position in the history of chemistry. Not only as the main protagonist of the so-called scientific revolution, but he was also the one who led to the consolidation of chemistry as a science.

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In his early 20s, he already held public office and at 25 he was elected a member of the honorable Academy of Sciences. Before, he had enjoyed a privileged education, beginning his studies at the elite School of the Four Nations, where he already stood out for his gifts in Natural Sciences.

Apart from standing out for his previously mentioned studies, he also stood out in many more fields such as the law of conservation of mass or Lomonosov-Lavoisier law, caloric theory and combustion, research on photosynthesis … a great job that helped as he had not done. no one before the consolidation and the rise of chemistry. Lavoisier even tried to introduce reforms in the French monetary and tax system and in agricultural production methods. antoine lavoisier fun facts

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His great contributions who is father of chemistry

But if there are works to be highlighted by this father of chemistry, it is certainly important to highlight his experiments on the nature of combustion. In them, Lavoisier, demonstrated that this is a process in which the combination of a substance with oxygen takes place, refuting the theory of phlogiston. It is also important as it demonstrated to the rest of the scientists the role of oxygen in the respiration of animals and plants.

One of his most famous works, after a successful career and at a more mature age, was the Elementary Treatise on Chemistry, published in 1789 , just five years before his death. Lavoisier clarified the concept of the element as a simple substance that cannot be divided by any known chemical analysis method.

In turn, he developed a theory of the formation of compounds from the elements. Carrying out quantitative studies on alcoholic fermentation and found, in addition to ethanol and carbon dioxide, another product to which he gave the name of acetic acid. Stoichiometrically, using balances, he found that 95.6 parts of sugar give 57.5% ethanol, 33.3% carbon dioxide and 2% acetic acid.

Other famous works were Memory on Combustion (1777) and General Considerations on the Nature of Acids (1778).

His death was tragic and unjust, recognized a posteriori by the new French government. While working in the collection of taxes, he was arrested in 1793 at the age of 50. Despite the support he received from other scientists and personalities for his work, the court commented “The republic does not need scientists or chemists, the action of justice cannot be stopped.” Lavoisier was guillotined on May 8, 1794.