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Chemistry Facts

Knocking the NOx Out of Coal

Nitrogen is the most common part of the air we breathe. In fact, about 80% of the air is nitrogen. Normally, nitrogen atoms float around joined to each other like chemical couples. But when air is ... Continue reading

Air is mostly nitrogen molecules (green in the above diagram) and oxygen molecules (purple). When heated hot enough (around 3000 degrees F), the molecules break apart and oxygen atoms link with the nitrogen atoms to form NOx, an air pollutant.

How Sublime

Show of hands. How many of you can't resist playing with dry ice? Dry ice is carbon dioxide frozen to -109.3 degrees F (-78.5 C). Throw a piece in water and it bubbles and boils. Expose a piece to air ... Continue reading

Sublimation of Comet's Tail

Exploding Fertilizer

Atmospheric nitrogen is a diatomic molecule of just two nitrogen atoms bonded very strongly to each other. Nitrogen, in compound with other elements, is just a single nitrogen atom bonded very weakly, ... Continue reading

Crops benefit from nitrogen-based fertilizers as in this field of safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L.

What Is Reduction?

Long ago, in a laboratory far, far away...before the development of the atomic theory we now use, scientists believed in a principle called animism, and that the chemistry of different materials was ... Continue reading