Antoine Lavoisier revolutionized chemistry. It was he who coined the name oxygen for the element released by mercury oxide.
He found that oxygen made up 20 per cent of air, and was vital for combustion and respiration. He also concluded that when phosphorus or sulfur is burned in air, the products are formed by the reaction of these elements with oxygen.
The elements carbon and hydrogen were also named by him. Another milestone was when Lavoisier correctly identified sulfur as an element. A year later, he found that when mercury oxide is heated, its weight decreases. The oxygen it releases has exactly the same weight as the weight lost by the mercury oxide. After carrying out further experiments, Lavoisier announced a new fundamental law of nature- the law of conversation of mass. This law states that the total mass of a chemical reaction’s products is identical to the total mass of the starting materials.