who discovered carbon

Carbon as an element was known since prehistoric times in forms like charcoal and soot, used by ancient civilizations. However, the formal recognition of carbon as a distinct chemical element is credited to the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1772. Lavoisier demonstrated through experiments that materials such as charcoal and diamond were composed of the same element by showing they produced the same amount of carbon dioxide when burned. Before Lavoisier, carbon was used and identified in different forms like soot, charcoal, and diamonds by various cultures, but its elemental nature was not scientifically established until Lavoisier's work. Also, Joseph Black played a role in identifying carbon dioxide gas in the 1750s, contributing to understanding carbon's chemical behavior.