A team of astrophysicists, geoscientists, chemists and life scientists affiliated with a host of institutions in Japan has found evidence that billions of years ago, the Earth's oceans were green. In their study published ...
As part of a multi-pronged approach toward curbing the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, scientists seek to better understand the impact of rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on terrestrial ecosystems, particularly tropical ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 20, 2025
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A new publication by researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford shows that the relationship between water temperature and the main biological mechanism by which the ocean captures atmospheric ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 20, 2025
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Methanol, important for the manufacture of many everyday goods and for its green energy potential, may soon be produced faster and more efficiently thanks to a collaboration that included two Oregon State University researchers.
Nanomaterials
Feb 18, 2025
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32
Scientists at Yale and in Singapore have devised what may be the ultimate acid test—a comprehensive model for estimating the origins of Earth's habitability, based in part on ocean acidity.
Earth Sciences
Feb 11, 2025
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Could a sudden drop in pollution from cargo vessels criss-crossing global shipping lanes be inadvertently making the world hotter?
Environment
Feb 10, 2025
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The Kobe University start-up Photo-on-Demand Chemical Co. Ltd. demonstrated that it can produce methane from sewage to refine it into pharmaceutical raw materials and other useful chemicals. For this, Tsuda Akihiko, the CEO ...
Biochemistry
Feb 6, 2025
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4
Italy's Phlegraean Fields is a hotspot of volcanic activity—an ever-shifting landscape pocketed with acidic hot springs. This huge caldera is a part of the Campanian volcanic arc, which includes Mount Vesuvius, whose eruption ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 6, 2025
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50
As pandemic lockdowns forced humans into isolation, Earth's vegetation was thriving. The year 2020 was the greenest in modern satellite records from 2001 to 2020, according to a recent study published in Remote Sensing of ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 6, 2025
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213
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are a major contributor to the climate crisis, and while the world works to reduce emissions, chemists and engineers are also working on how to capture and utilize the carbon dioxide already ...
Analytical Chemistry
Feb 6, 2025
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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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
