History of Chemistry

We all study chemistry in schools, but have we wondered how did chemistry start? What is the origin of chemistry? Early "chemists" focused on solving practical problems, like how to make dyes and perfumes, how to make soap, how to use metals, and how to make glass. The goal wasn't to figure out how things work in the physical world. That came later. People just wanted to make things that would make their lives better in some way.

• This article is about the history of chemistry.
• First, we will see the origin of chemistry and the alchemy history of chemistry.
• Then, we will study the early modern chemistry.
• To finish, we will analyse the history of inorganic and Organic Chemistry.

Origin of Chemistry

When we say "chemistry," we're talking about the modern, scientific study of matter and how it changes. Still, the fact that "chemistry" looks a lot like "alchemy" is not a coincidence. Early alchemists were often called "chemists," and over time, their work, especially the more legitimate parts of it, came to be called "chemistry." In many ways, it makes sense that the word for the modern study of matter comes from the ancient practice of alchemy, since early alchemists came up with many of the techniques and tools that are important to modern chemistry.

Alchemy history of chemistry

Even though the word "chemistry" comes from Egypt, it seems that people all over the world were experimenting with chemicals as early as the 5th century BC. Early alchemists in China mostly wanted to find "the elixir of life," a potion that could cure all diseases and keep people from dying. In an ironic twist, many of these early elixirs were made by mixing mercury and arsenic salts, which are both very poisonous. Several Chinese emperors are said to have died after drinking "elixirs of life". Even though early Chinese chemists never found a magic potion that could cure all diseases, they did find many new chemicals and Chemical Reactions, some of which are still used today in fireworks and gunpowder.

Alchemists from India, like their Chinese counterparts, were interested in some of the ways that different chemicals could help with health. Indian alchemists were interested in metals and metallurgy as well as medicine. Early Indian writings show how to get metals like silver, gold, and tin out of ores that were dug out of the ground and clean them up. Also, alchemists from the Indian subcontinent were the first to figure out that they could make materials with new and useful properties by mixing molten metals with other chemicals. Wootz steel, which is also called Damascus steel, was found in Sri Lanka around the year 300 AD. It was made by mixing just the right amounts of molten iron, glass, and charcoal. However, it became famous because it could be used to make swords that were known for being sharp and strong in battle.

Around the same time that Wootz steel was being made in Sri Lanka, alchemists in Egypt and Greece were also starting to try new things. In this part of the world, alchemy was mostly about working with colors and dyes and, of course, turning common metals into gold and silver. But Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle also came up with the important idea that natural laws could explain everything in the universe.

Modern chemistry is based on the study of these universal laws, which you will learn more about in the next section. Modern scientific laws are, of course, a little different from what Plato or Aristotle had in mind. In general, scientific laws are found through careful experimentation and observation, while the ancient Greeks thought that their "natural laws" could be found through philosophy.

Alchemy was also very interesting to people in Europe in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, many European alchemists got their ideas from the more magical Arabian alchemists. As a result, European alchemy quickly became linked to wizardry, magic, and the search for the "philosopher's stone." The scientific method wasn't used by European chemists until the end of the 17th century. Robert Boyle (1627–1691) was the first European to do this. He used quantitative experiments to figure out how the pressure of a gas affects how much space it takes up. His use of the scientific method led the way for other European scientists and helped build the modern science of chemistry.

About 100 years after Robert Boyle's first experiments, Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794), a French scientist, used the scientific method by carefully weighing the reactants and products before and after Chemical Reactions. Lavoisier's experiments led him to believe that mass cannot be created or destroyed because the total amount of matter never changed. The Law of Conservation of Mass says this. Because of his important contributions to the study of matter, Lavoisier is often called "The Father of Modern Chemistry."

Fig. 1: Drawing of Antoine Lavoisier. Picture taken from: Wikimedia Commons.

After Lavoisier's work was well received, experiments that involved careful measuring and observing became more popular. This led to a quick improvement in our understanding of chemicals and how they change. In fact, by the end of the 19th century, chemists knew so much more that almost nobody was looking for the "philosopher's stone" anymore.

Early Modern Chemistry

The history of chemistry is fun and hard to understand. Early chemists were often most interested in getting to a certain goal or making a certain product. Making perfume and soap didn't require much theory. All you needed was a good recipe and careful attention to detail. There wasn't a standard way to call things (and no periodic table that everyone could agree on). But science has grown and changed over time.

When Robert Boyle (1637-1691) started doing research in chemistry, he made great strides toward making it a solid science. He came up with the basic ideas about how gases behave, which made it possible to describe gases mathematically. Boyle was also one of the first people to think that small particles could join together to make molecules. John Dalton built the atomic theory on these ideas from a long time ago.

Fig. 2: Drawing of Robert Boyle. Picture taken from: Wikimedia Commons.

In the 1700s, the field of chemistry began to grow and change quickly. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) found oxygen, Carbon monoxide, and Nitrous Oxide and wrote about them. Later, it was found that nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas," worked as a painkiller. In 1844, when a tooth was pulled, this gas was used for the first time in this way. During this time, chlorine was found by C.W. Scheele (1742-1786) and Nitrogen was found by Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794). Many scientists think of Lavoisier as the "father and founder of chemistry."

In the 1800s, chemists kept coming up with new compounds. The science also started to become more based on theories. John Dalton, who lived from 1766 to 1844, came up with the idea of atoms in 1807. Scientists could think about chemistry in a much more organized way after they came up with this idea. Amadeo Avogadro (1776–1856) helped make chemistry more quantitative by figuring out how many particles are in a given amount of a gas. Trying to understand how chemical reactions work took a lot of work. Because of these efforts, new things were made. After Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) invented the battery, Humphry Davy (1778-1829) and Michael Faraday made important contributions to both the theory and practice of Electrochemistry (1791-1867). Other parts of the field also moved forward quickly.

It would take a big book to explain how chemistry has changed over the past 100 years and up to the present day. The chemistry of how living things work was one area that grew a lot. Research on how plants use light to make food, the discovery and study of enzymes as biochemical Catalysts, and the study of the structures of biomolecules like insulin and DNA all led to a huge amount of new information in the field of biochemistry.

History of Inorganic chemistry

Since ancient times, people have known about and used inorganic compounds like Prussian blue (Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃), which is a deep blue pigment. But no one knew what these substances were made of until the late 1800s and early 1900s when the modern field of coordination chemistry began to develop. Alfred Werner, who lived from 1866 to 1919 and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913, and Sophus Mads Jrgensen did a lot of work and argued about it that led to a lot of what we know about Inorganic Chemistry today (1837 –1914). After Werner won these arguments, the field of inorganic chemistry became less popular until the middle of the 20th century, when the Second World War brought it back into the spotlight. During the time after World War II, many important discoveries and ideas were made. For example, important theories were made about how bonds form in Coordination Compounds.

Crystal Field Theory (CFT) and Ligand Field Theory (LFT) were both made soon after World War II. These are two important theories that explain the spectroscopic, chemical, and structural properties of inorganic Coordination Compounds. CFT is easier to understand, while LFT is more accurate. In the 1950s, the Haber-Bosch Process and organometallic Catalysts that speed up important organic reactions were both found. The Haber-Bosch Process is one of the most important industrial reactions in the world. It is sped up by an inorganic oxide catalyst. It makes it possible to make ammonia directly from Nitrogen (N₂) and hydrogen (H₂).

$$N_{2\,(g)} + 3H_{2\,(g)} \rightleft 2NH_{3\,(g)}

Since it was invented at the beginning of the 20th century, it has led to the production of a huge amount of fertilizer, which has greatly increased the amount of food grown around the world. Because of this, it is thought that this process is responsible for a large amount of the nitrogen in the average human body. In an industrial setting, the reaction must be done at high temperatures and pressures. However, the nitrogenase enzyme in the roots of plants can do this reaction at low temperatures and low pressures. Then, scientists worked hard to figure out how to improve inorganic catalysts by learning more about the metal cofactors in enzymes. The connection between the Haber-Bosche industrial process and the nitrogenase enzyme was one of the first ways that organometallic chemistry and biochemistry could communicate with each other.

Fig. 3: The experiments carried out in laboratories are very important for chemistry, and science in general, to develop. Image taken from: Wikimedia Commons.

History of Organic Chemistry

Carbon compounds make up most of all living things on Earth. The name "carbon-based" life comes from the fact that most living things are made of carbon compounds. We have never seen any other kind of life. Early chemists thought that substances taken from organisms (plants and animals) were a different kind of matter that couldn't be made in a lab. They called these substances "Organic Compounds" because they couldn't be made in a lab. Vitalism was a widely held idea that said organic compounds were made by a vital force that could only be found in living things. Friedrich Wohler, a German chemist, was one of the first to show that this part of vitalism was wrong. In 1828, he reported making urea, which is found in many body fluids, from nonliving materials. Since then, it has been known that organic molecules follow the same natural laws as inorganic molecules, and the group of organic compounds has grown to include both natural and man-made compounds that contain carbon. Some carbon-based compounds, like carbonates and cyanides, as well as simple oxides like CO and CO₂, are not considered to be organic. Even though the chemistry community hasn't come up with a single, clear definition, most agree that organic molecules have carbon as their main element, which is bonded to hydrogen and other carbon atoms.