Evolution of Modern Chemistry

Modern chemistry

In the hands of the Oxford Chemists (Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, and John Mayow) chemistry began to
emerge as distinct from the pseudoscience of alchemy. Boyle (1627–91) is often called the founder of
modern chemistry (an honor sometimes also given Antoine Lavoisier, 1743–94) and he performed
experiments under reduced pressure, using an air pump, and discovered that volume and pressure are
inversely related in gases (see gas laws). Hooke gave the first rational explanation of combustion —as
combination with air—while Mayow studied animal respiration. Even as the English chemists were
moving toward the correct theory of combustion, two Germans, J. J. Becher and G. E. Stahl, introduced
the false phlogiston theory of combustion, which held that the substance phlogiston is contained in all
combustible bodies and escapes when the bodies burn.

The discovery of various gases and the analysis of air as a mixture of gases occurred during the
phlogiston period. Carbon dioxide, first described by J. B. Van Helmont and rediscovered by Joseph Black
in 1754, was originally called fixed air. Hydrogen, discovered by Boyle and carefully studied by Henry
Cavendish, was called inflammable air and was sometimes identified with phlogiston itself. Cavendish
also showed that the explosion of hydrogen and oxygen produces water and then C. W. Scheele found
that air is composed of two fluids, only one of which supports combustion.

C. W. Scheele was the first to obtain pure oxygen (1771–73), although he did not recognize it as an
element. Joseph Priestley independently discovered oxygen by heating the red oxide of mercury with a
burning glass; he was the last great defender of the phlogiston theory. The work of Priestley, Black, and
Cavendish was radically reinterpreted by Lavoisier, who did for chemistry what Newton had done for
physics a century before. He made no important new discoveries of his own; rather, he was a
theoretician. He recognized the true nature of combustion, introduced a new chemical nomenclature,
and wrote the first modern chemistry textbook. . He erroneously believed that all acids contain oxygen.

(https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/chemistry/concepts/chemistry/history-of-
chemistry)

Mid 19th Century present this is the era chemistry flourished. Lavoisier's thesis gave chemists the first
sound understanding of the nature of chemical reactions. Lavoisier's work led an English schoolteacher
by the name of John Dalton to formulate his atomic theory. He was also a theoretician.

Around the same time an Italian chemist, Amedeo Avogadro formulated his own theory (Avogadro's
Law) concerning molecules and their relation to temperature and pressure. By the middle of the 19th
century, there were approximately 60 known elements. John A.R. Newlands, Stanislao Cannizzaro and
A.E.B. de Chancourtois first noticed that all of these element were very much alike in structure. Their
work led Dmitri Mendeleev to publish the first periodic table and Mendeleev's work was the set of the
foundation of theoretical chemistry.

In 1896 Henri Becquerel and the Curies discovered the phenomenon known as radioactivity. This laid the
foundation for nuclear chemistry. In 1919, Ernest Rutherford became discovered that elements could be
transmutated and Rutherford's work laid the basis for interpreting the structure of the atom. Soon after,
another chemist, Niels Bohr finalized the atomic theory.
( https://www.sutori.com/story/early-history-of-chemistry--5ACBBwjG6zMLBYwtdF8er9XZ )

At the beginning, before 20th century, chemistry was described as the behavior of matter and its role in
various transformations from one phase to other phase. But after the discovery of atomic theory and
structure of atoms by Rutherford and Niels Bohr, the angle of vision of nature of matters has been
changed. It became more important to discuss about the electron clouds surrounding the atomic nuclei
than dealing with the study of whole behavior of matters. Modern chemistry describes the composition,
structure and physical and chemical properties of substances.

Modern chemistry was effectively born from the convergence between an entirely new corpus of
theoretical knowledge and the empirical knowledge of workmen and craftsmen concerning the
characteristics and reactions of substances. It explains the transformations of the substances into the
different phases. The main aim of modern chemistry is to improve the communication and conversation
among the scientists, researchers, engineers and policy makers, who are working under the area of
modern chemistry. Modern chemistry deals with the publishing of all type of research papers with all
perspectives of chemistry.

(https://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/itineraries/multimedia/ModernChemistry.html)

( https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/what-is-modern-chemistry-6 )

https://www.lenntech.com/periodic/history/history-periodic-table.htm

https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_and_Case_Studies/Exemplars/
Culture/History_of_the_Periodic_Table