| 释义 |
Lavoisier Antoine Laurent La·voi·sier (lä-vwä-zyā′), Antoine Laurent 1743-1794. French chemist who isolated the major components of air, disproved the phlogiston theory by determining the role of oxygen in combustion, and devised a system of chemical nomenclature. Lavoisier was executed during the Reign of Terror.La·voi·sier (lä-vwä-zyā′), Antoine Laurent 1743-1794. French chemist who is regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry. In 1778 he discovered that air consists of a mixture of two gases, which he called oxygen and nitrogen. Lavoisier also discovered the law of conservation of mass and devised the modern method of naming chemical compounds. His wife, Marie (1758-1836), assisted him with his laboratory work and translated a number of important chemistry texts. See Notes at oxygen, Priestley.Biography Although Antoine Lavoisier made many fundamental contributions to the science of chemistry, rather than being known for major experiments or discoveries, he is best known for being the first scientist to collect and publish everything that was known about chemistry in his time. His Elementary Treatise of Chemistry, published in 1789, is regarded as the first textbook on modern chemistry. In it, Lavoisier presented a systematic and unified view of new theories and established a system for naming chemical compounds. Lavoisier also put to rest an important and longstanding theory about combustion, a mysterious process that had baffled the greatest minds since antiquity. For centuries it was believed that a substance called phlogiston, thought to be a volatile part of all combustible substances, was released during the process of combustion. By repeating the experiments of Joseph Priestley, Lavoisier demonstrated that combustion is a process in which the burning substance combines with a constituent of the air, the gas he named oxygen. |