Made In China: PM2.5 Pollution From Ammonia

Friday, February 17, 2012 - 12:40 in Physics & Chemistry

Fill a glass with water and place it under a running tap. Water will flow out of the glass at the same rate that it flows into it. It's not the same molecules that are in the glass at any given moment, but we maintain the same volume of water. We have what's known as a steady state. Nitrogen is the most common gas in the atmosphere. In terms of molecules or volume--they are proportional to each other under the same conditions of pressure and temperature--about 78% of air is N2. Air's other main component, diatomic oxygen, has a bond dissociation energy of 494 kJ per mole. But to break nitrogen's triple bond takes almost twice as much energy: 942 kJ per mole. This makes nitrogen unreactive within the atmosphere's normal temperature range. read more

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