Nitrogen - Element information, properties and uses (2024)

Transcript :

Chemistry in its element: nitrogen

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You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

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Chris Smith

Hello! This week, we're blowing up airbags, asphyxiating animals and getting to the bottom of gunpowder because Cambridge chemist Peter Wothers has been probing the history of nitrogen.

Peter Wothers

Nitrogen gas makes up about 80% of the air we breathe. It's by far the most abundant element in its group in the periodic table and yet it is the last member of its family to be discovered. The other elements in its group, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth, had all been discovered, used and abused at least 100 years before nitrogen was known about. It wasn't really until the 18th Century that people focussed their attention on the chemistry of the air and the preparation properties of different gases. We can only really make sense of the discovery of nitrogen by also noting the discovery of some of these other gases.

Robert Boyle noted in 1670 that when acid was added to iron filings, the mixture grew very hot and belched up copious and stinking fumes. So inflammable it was that upon the approach of a lighted candle to it, it would readily enough take fire and burn with a bluish and somewhat greenish flame. Hydrogen was more carefully prepared and collected by the brilliant but reclusive millionaire scientist Henry Cavendish about a 100 years later. Cavendish called the gas inflammable air from the metals in recognition of this most striking property. He also studied the gas we know call carbon dioxide, which had first been prepared by the Scottish chemist, Joseph Black in the 1750s. Black called carbon dioxide fixed air, since it was thought to be locked up or fixed in certain minerals such as limestone. It could be released from its stony prison by the action of heat or acids.

Carbon dioxide was also known by the name mephitic air the word mephitic meaning noxious or poisonous. This name obviously came from its property of destroying life, since it rapidly suffocates any animals immersed in it. This is where the confusion with nitrogen gas begins, since pure nitrogen gas is also suffocating to animals. If the oxygen in an enclosed quantity of air is used up, either by burning a candle in it or by confining an animal, most of the oxygen is converted to carbon dioxide gas which mixes with the nitrogen gas present in the air. This noxious mixture no longer supports life and so was called mephitic.

The crucial experiment in the discovery of nitrogen was when it was realized that there are at least two different kinds of suffocating gases in this mephitic air. This was done by passing the mixture of gases through a solution of alkali, which absorbed the carbon dioxide but left behind the nitrogen gas. Cavendish prepared nitrogen gas by this means. He passed air back and forth over heated charcoal which converted the oxygen in the air to carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide was then dissolved in alkali leaving behind the inert nitrogen gas, which he correctly observed was slightly less dense than common air. Unfortunately, Cavendish didn't publish his findings. He just communicated them in a letter to fellow scientist, Joseph Priestley, one of the discoverers of oxygen gas. Consequently, the discovery of nitrogen is usually accredited to one of Joseph Black's students, the Scottish scientist, Daniel Rutherford, who's also the uncle of the novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott. Rutherford published his findings, which was similar to those of Cavendish in his doctoral thesis entitled, "An Inaugural Dissertation on the Air called Fixed or Mephitic" in 1772.

So what about the name, nitrogen? In the late 1780s, chemical nomenclature underwent a major revolution under the guidance of the French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier. It was he and his colleagues, who suggested many of the names we still use today including the word hydrogen, which comes from the Greek meaning water former and oxygen from the Greek for acid producer, since Lavoisier mistakenly thought that oxygen was the key component of all acids. However, in his list of the then known elements, Lavoisier included the term azote or azotic gas for what we now call nitrogen. This again stems from Greek words, this time meaning the absence of life, once again focussing on its mephitic quality. It was not long before it was pointed out that there are many mephitic gases, in fact no gas other than oxygen can support life. The name nitrogen was therefore proposed from the observation, again first made by Cavendish that if the gases sparked with oxygen, and then the resulting nitrogen dioxide gases passed through alkali, nitre, otherwise known as saltpetre or potassium nitrate is formed. The word nitrogen therefore means nitre former. The derivatives of the word, azote still survive today. The compound used to explosively fill car air bags with gas is sodium azide, a compound of just sodium and nitrogen. When triggered this compound explosively decomposes freeing the nitrogen gas, which inflates the bags. Far from destroying life, this azotic compound has been responsible for saving thousands.

Chris Smith

Cambridge University's Peter Wothers telling the story of the discovery of nitrogen. Next time on Chemistry in its element, how chemists like Mendeleev got to grips with both the known and the unknown.

Mark Peplow

While other scientists had tried to create ways of ordering the known elements, Mendeleev created the system that could predict the existence of elements, not yet discovered. When he presented the table to the world in 1869, it contained four prominent gaps. One of these was just below manganese and Mendeleev predicted that element with atomic weight 43 would be found to fill that gap, but it was not until 1937 that a group of Italian scientists finally found the missing element, which they named technetium.

Chris Smith

And you can hear Mark Peplow telling technetium's tale in next week's edition of Chemistry in its element. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening. See you next time.

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Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced bythenakedscientists.com. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website atchemistryworld.org/elements.

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Nitrogen
    - Element information, properties and uses (2024)

FAQs

What are the properties and uses of nitrogen? ›

A colourless, odourless gas. Nitrogen is important to the chemical industry. It is used to make fertilisers, nitric acid, nylon, dyes and explosives. To make these products, nitrogen must first be reacted with hydrogen to produce ammonia.

What are the properties of the element nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen is a common normally colourless, odourless, tasteless and mostly diatomic non-metal gas. It has five electrons in its outer shell, so it is trivalent in most compounds.

What are 10 properties of nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen (N) is an odorless, colorless gas representing the most abundant element in the Earth's atmosphere.
...
Nitrogen Properties
  • Molecular weight: 14.01 g/mol.
  • Boiling point: -195.795°C.
  • Melting point: -210.0°C.
  • Density: 1.251 g/L.
  • Appearance: colorless gas, liquid or solid.
29 Sept 2021

What are 5 uses of nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen gas applications
  • Food industry. Nitrogen gas is also used to provide an unreactive atmosphere. ...
  • Light bulbs industry. ...
  • Fire suppression systems. ...
  • Stainless steel manufacturing. ...
  • Tire filling systems. ...
  • Aircraft fuel systems. ...
  • Chemical analysis and chemical industry. ...
  • Pressurised beer kegs.

What is the best use of nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen is critical to plant growth and reproduction. Pasture and crop growth will often respond to an increased availability of soil nitrogen. This situation is often managed through the addition of nitrogen fertilisers.

What is nitrogen short answer? ›

Nitrogen, or N, using its scientific abbreviation, is a colorless, odorless element. Nitrogen is in the soil under our feet, in the water we drink, and in the air we breathe. In fact, nitrogen is the most abundant element in Earth's atmosphere: approximately 78% of the atmosphere is nitrogen!

What are the 10 properties of elements? ›

Chemical properties
  • Atomic number. The atomic number indicates the number of protons within the core of an atom. ...
  • Atomic mass. The name indicates the mass of an atom, expressed in atomic mass units (amu). ...
  • Electronegativity according to Pauling. ...
  • Density. ...
  • Melting point. ...
  • Boiling point. ...
  • Vanderwaals radius. ...
  • Ionic radius.

What are the 4 properties of elements? ›

Atomic properties that are critical to the behavior of elements are electron configuration, atomic size, ionization energy, electron affinity, and electronegativity.

What are the all properties of an element? ›

All elements have properties. All elements have properties. Those properties include, but are not limited to, conductivity, magnetism, melting point, boiling point, color, state of matter, and others. Elements with similar properties are grouped together in different areas of the periodic table of elements.

What are the 3 types of nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen formSymbol
Dinitrogen (Atmospheric Nitrogen)N2
NitrateNO3
Ammonium NitrogenNH4
Organic NitrogenC-NH2 (where C is a complex organic group)

What are 3 examples of nitrogen? ›

In combination, nitrogen is found in the rain and soil as ammonia and ammonium salts and in seawater as ammonium (NH4+), nitrite (NO2), and nitrate (NO3) ions.

Why is nitrogen important to life? ›

The nitrogen cycle matters because nitrogen is an essential nutrient for sustaining life on Earth. Nitrogen is a core component of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, and of nucleic acids, which are the building blocks of genetic material (RNA and DNA).

What are 2 important uses of nitrogen for living things? ›

Nitrogen is a crucially important component for all life. It is an important part of many cells and processes such as amino acids, proteins and even our DNA. It is also needed to make chlorophyll in plants, which is used in photosynthesis to make their food.

What is nitrogen made of? ›

Nitrogen is a chemical element with an atomic number of 7 (it has seven protons in its nucleus). Molecular nitrogen (N2) is a very common chemical compound in which two nitrogen atoms are tightly bound together. Molecular nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and inert gas at normal temperatures and pressures.

How do we use nitrogen? ›

5 Ways Nitrogen Is Used In Everyday Life
  1. Gas Generators.
  2. Industrial nitrogen generators.
  3. nitrogen for construction.
  4. nitrogen for food packaging.
  5. nitrogen for food preservation.
  6. nitrogen for manufacturing.
  7. nitrogen for medicines.
  8. nitrogen for soldering.
27 Sept 2018

Is nitrogen useful or harmful? ›

Nitrogen makes plants grow. But too much of a good thing is a bad thing. When too much nitrogen flows to our bays, fast-growing plants out-compete and kill slower-growing beneficial plants. Decaying plants use up oxygen, which kills fish and other marine life.

Is nitrogen good for food? ›

Because it is a safe, inert gas, nitrogen is an excellent replacement for oxygen or supplemental gas in food packaging and manufacturing. Increased nitrogen preserves freshness, protects the nutrients, and prevents aerobic microbial growth.

What color is nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen: blue (the sky is blue, and nitrogen makes up most of the atmosphere). Hydrogen: white (colorless gas). Chlorine: green (greenish gas). Sulfur: yellow (the element is yellow).

Where is nitrogen stored? ›

Nitrogen is an element that is found in both the living portion of our planet and the inorganic parts of the Earth system. Nitrogen moves slowly through the cycle and is stored in reservoirs such as the atmosphere, living organisms, soils, and oceans along the way. Most of the nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere.

Where is nitrogen come from? ›

Nitrogen makes up 78 per cent of the air we breathe, and it's thought that most of it was initially trapped in the chunks of primordial rubble that formed the Earth. When they smashed together, they coalesced and their nitrogen content has been seeping out along the molten cracks in the planet's crust ever since.

What are the 6 properties? ›

What are the Properties of Whole Numbers?
  • Closure Property.
  • Commutative Property of Addition and Multiplication.
  • Associative Property of Addition and Multiplication.
  • Distributive Property of multiplication over addition.
  • Identity Property.

What are all 12 elements? ›

The twelve elements of nature are Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Thunder, Ice, Force, Time, Flower, Shadow, Light and Moon. Each of these elements are simplified terms for higher and complex substances.

What are the 7 properties in science? ›

Mass, weight, and volume are examples of extensive properties that differ from the sum of the material. Colour, melting point, boiling point, electrical conductivity, and physical condition at a given temperature are examples of intensive properties that are independent of the volume of the material.

What are the 5 properties? ›

Commutative Property, Associative Property, Distributive Property, Identity Property of Multiplication, And Identity Property of Addition.

What are the 4 types of properties? ›

This brings us to the four types of real estate and the potential benefits each of these have to offer.
  • Residential Real Estate.
  • Commercial Real Estate.
  • Industrial Real Estate.
  • Land.
21 Mar 2022

What are the 4 most important elements? ›

Scientists believe that about 25 of the known elements are essential to life. Just four of these – carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H) and nitrogen (N) – make up about 96% of the human body. 25 elements are known to be essential to life.

What are the 7 major types of properties? ›

Investors large and small soon learn there are seven major types of real estate, including residential, office, industrial-warehouse, hospitality, retail, agricultural and the remainder, catch-all category of “special.”

What are 5 physical properties of elements? ›

Physical Properties of Elements
  • Color.
  • Luster.
  • Malleability.
  • Density.
  • Melting point.
  • Boiling point.
  • Electrical conductivity.
27 Dec 2021

What are the 4 types of elements? ›

The Four Elements. Greek philosophy supposed the Universe to comprise four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.

What are 4 uses of nitrogen? ›

What are the 4 major uses of Nitrogen?
  • Food Preservation. One of the most common usages of nitrogen is in the food industry for packaging. ...
  • Pharmaceuticals. Did you know that nitrogen gas is present in every major drug class? ...
  • Manufacturing and Construction. ...
  • Electronics.

Why is it called nitrogen? ›

Where did nitrogen get its name? Nitrogen was named by French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal in 1790. He named it after the mineral niter when he found that niter contained the gas. Niter is also called saltpeter or potassium nitrate.

What are the three functions of nitrogen? ›

The wellness of plant parts (leaves, roots, trunks e.t.c) depends on the availability of essential nutrients like nitrogen to enhance the plant's biological processes including growth, absorption, transportation, and excretion.

Is nitrogen A metal or? ›

Nitrogen, N, is an odorless, colourless, and tasteless gas. It is a non-metal with one of the highest levels of electronegativity on the periodic table of elements.

What are the four types of nitrogen? ›

Four different types of nitrogenous bases are found in DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). In RNA, the thymine is replaced by uracil (U).

Is nitrogen A base or acid? ›

Nitrogen is basic because it is one of the Lewis bases. The nitrogen contains single or one lone pair of e− (electrons), and these electrons create a bond with the species named as electrophiles. Therefore, the nitrogen is basic because it has one lone pair of e− (electrons).

Is nitrogen useful to humans? ›

Nitrogen is an essential element for all forms of life and is the structural component of amino acids from which animal and human tissues, enzymes, and many hormones are made.

Is nitrogen important for humans? ›

Nitrogen is an important component and is used to make amino acids, which in turn is used to make proteins.

What is the main function of nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen is an essential macronutrient for plant function and is a key component of amino acids, which form the building blocks of plant proteins and enzymes. Proteins make up the structural materials of all living matters and enzymes facilitate the vast array of biochemical reactions within a plant.

Can we live without nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen is an inert gas and is not toxic. But breathing pure nitrogen is deadly to humans, since it displaces oxygen in the lungs. Hence, humans are unable to live without nitrogen as there are severe complications, dynamics and various parameters are essential to be cooperative for life without nitrogen.

How is nitrogen stored? ›

Gaseous nitrogen is shipped and stored in high-pressure cylinders, tubes, or tube trailers depending upon the quantity required by the user.

Is nitrogen a gas or liquid? ›

As one of the most abundant elements on earth, nitrogen (n2) gas composes about 79% of the air we breathe. It is a highly stable gas that is both odorless and colorless.

Is nitrogen a gas or air? ›

Nitrogen is an inert (non-flammable) gas – basically, nothing more than dry air with oxygen removed. In fact, ambient air contains about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% miscellaneous gas.

Is nitrogen harmful or toxic? ›

* Exposure to Nitrogen is dangerous because it can replace Oxygen and lead to suffocation.

What are 2 physical properties of nitrogen? ›

Characteristics. Nitrogen gas (chemical symbol N) is generally inert, nonmetallic, colorless, odorless and tasteless. Its atomic number is 7, and it has an atomic weight of 14.0067. Nitrogen has a density of 1.251 grams/liter at 0 C and a specific gravity of 0.96737, making it slightly lighter than air.

What are the main properties of nitrogen family? ›

Nitrogen Family

All of the elements of this family have five electrons in their outermost energy level. This group is divided into nonmetals, semimetals, and metals by characteristic. The top two elements, nitrogen and phosphorus, are very definitely nonmetals, forming -3 charge anions.

What are the uses of nitrogen Class 8? ›

It is used in the production of fertilisers, nitric acid, nylon, dyes and explosives. Nitrogen is used for filling in light bulbs since it is a non-reactive gas. In the pharmaceutical industry, nitrogen is frequently used to move a reaction mixture from one vessel to another.

What type of element is nitrogen? ›

Nitrogen, N, is a nonmetal chemical element with 7 protons. It is present in all living tissues as proteins, nucleic acids, and other molecules, and is the largest single component of the Earth's atmosphere.

What are the 4 types of nitrogen compounds? ›

Nitrogen forms many thousands of organic compounds. Most of the known varieties may be regarded as derived from ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, cyanogen, and nitrous or nitric acid.

What is the principle of nitrogen? ›

Principles of nitrogen cycling

Nitrogen is essential for life. It is an element of chlorophyll in plants and of amino acids (protein), nucleic acids and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in plants, animals and humans.

How nitrogen is important for human? ›

The nitrogen cycle matters because nitrogen is an essential nutrient for sustaining life on Earth. Nitrogen is a core component of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, and of nucleic acids, which are the building blocks of genetic material (RNA and DNA).

How nitrogen is formed? ›

Nitrogen can also be produced on a large scale by burning carbon or hydrocarbons in air and separating the resulting carbon dioxide and water from the residual nitrogen. On a small scale, pure nitrogen is made by heating barium azide, Ba(N3)2.

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