News tagged with carbon dioxide
Fuel from market waste
Mushy tomatoes, brown bananas and overripe cherries -- to date, waste from wholesale markets has ended up on the compost heap at best. In future it will be put to better use: Researchers have developed a new ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
1 hour ago |
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Champagne gases different out of a flute versus coupe
Champagne just isn't champagne without its bubbles, and a study highlights the effects that champagne glass shape and temperature can have on carbonation upon serving and the drinking experience. The full report is published ...
20 hours ago |
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Research provides octagonal window of opportunity for carbon capture
(PhysOrg.com) -- Filtering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from factory smokestacks is a necessary, but expensive part of many manufacturing processes. However, a collaborative research team from the National ...
Feb 08, 2012 |
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Dry conditions spurred advanced photosynthesis
The need to conserve water played a vital role in driving plants to evolve a specialised form of photosynthesis, scientists have shown.
Feb 03, 2012 |
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Northern forests may be losing their ability to trap carbon
The northern forests of western Canada are likely absorbing less carbon dioxide because of climate change, and the decline may be making a bad situation worse, researchers from Quebec and China have concluded.
Feb 02, 2012 |
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ASU, Stanford examine implications of bioenergy crops
A team of researchers from Arizona State University, Stanford University and Carnegie Institution for Science has found that converting large swaths of land to bioenergy crops could have a wide range of effects ...
Feb 01, 2012 |
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New uses for diesel by-products
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new catalytic process discovered by the Cardiff Catalysis Institute could unleash a range of useful new by-products from diesel fuel production.
Jan 25, 2012 |
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Study supports role of quantum effects in photosynthesis
(PhysOrg.com) -- Until a few years ago, photosynthesis seemed to be a straightforward and well-understood process in which plants and other organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, ...
Jan 25, 2012 |
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Broadcast study of ocean acidification to date helps scientists evaluate effects on marine life
Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans ...
Jan 23, 2012 |
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Low carbon, moderate income and long life
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study shows that countries with high incomes and high carbon emissions do not achieve higher life expectancies than those with moderate incomes and lower carbon emissions.
Jan 23, 2012 |
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Unprecedented, man-made trends in ocean's acidity
Recent carbon dioxide emissions have pushed the level of seawater acidity far above the range of the natural variability that existed for thousands of years, affecting the calcification rates of shell-forming ...
Jan 22, 2012 |
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Researchers study potential effects of geoengineering on global food supply
Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and gas have been increasing over the past decades, causing the Earth to get hotter and hotter. There are concerns that a continuation of these trends could have catastrophic ...
Jan 22, 2012 |
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Thawing tundra a new climate threat
(PhysOrg.com) -- A significant source of greenhouse gases has started leaking into the Earth's atmosphere from an unlikely place. Above the Arctic Circle, land frozen for tens of thousands of years has begun ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
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Hearty bacteria help make case for life in the extreme
(PhysOrg.com) -- The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there, according to researchers.
Jan 19, 2012 |
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New research explains how diamond rich kimberlite makes its way to Earth's surface
(PhysOrg.com) -- Kimberlite, a type of magma that is normally found deep within the Earth’s crust is known to somehow make its way to the surface at times, and when it does, it quite often has diamonds ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 19, 2012 |
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Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula: CO2) is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state.
Carbon dioxide is used by plants during photosynthesis to make sugars, which may either be consumed in respiration or used as the raw material to produce other organic compounds needed for plant growth and development. It is produced during respiration by plants, and by all animals, fungi and microorganisms that depend either directly or indirectly on plants for food. It is thus a major component of the carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide is generated as a by-product of the combustion of fossil fuels or the burning of vegetable matter, among other chemical processes. Large amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted from volcanoes and other geothermal processes such as hot springs and geysers and by the dissolution of carbonates in crustal rocks.
As of March 2009[update], carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is at a concentration of 387 ppm by volume. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide fluctuate slightly with the change of the seasons, driven primarily by seasonal plant growth in the Northern Hemisphere. Concentrations of carbon dioxide fall during the northern spring and summer as plants consume the gas, and rise during the northern autumn and winter as plants go dormant, die and decay. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas as it transmits visible light but absorbs strongly in the infrared and near-infrared.
Carbon dioxide has no liquid state at pressures below 5.1 atmospheres. At 1 atmosphere (near mean sea level pressure), the gas deposits directly to a solid at temperatures below −78 °C and the solid sublimes directly to a gas above −78 °C. In its solid state, carbon dioxide is commonly called dry ice.
CO2 is an acidic oxide: an aqueous solution turns litmus from blue to pink. It is the anhydride of carbonic acid, an acid which is unstable and is known to exist only in aqueous solution.
CO2 is toxic in higher concentrations: 1% (10,000 ppm) will make some people feel drowsy. Concentrations of 7% to 10% cause dizziness, headache, visual and hearing dysfunction, and unconsciousness within a few minutes to an hour.
For more information about Carbon dioxide, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
