Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: taregg on 06/10/2013 13:26:20
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example....
one nitrogen can take 3 oxygen No3
one manganese can take 4 oxygen Mno4
if we say mn because it has 4 oxygen
if we say nitrogen because it has strong electroneagtivity
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As elements both are very weak oxidisers.
Nitrogen (gas) will oxidise lithium and a few other very reactive metals. Under the right conditions, it will also oxidise hydrogen to produce ammonia.
I don't think manganese (as the metal) will oxidise anything.
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sorry .....i mean agents ......strong oxidizing agents....
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Here's a list of oxidation potentials.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_standard_electrode_potentials (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_standard_electrode_potentials)
Several of the manganese containing materials are better oxidising agents than nitrate.
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example....
one nitrogen can take 3 oxygen No3
one manganese can take 4 oxygen Mno4
Shouldn't your question be which is the better REDUCING agent?
So, when you mix N2 and O2 at high temperatures, the Oxygen is the oxidizing agent, and the Nitrogen is the reducing agent.
Likewise, with Manganese, Mn + O2, Manganese is the reducing agent (although I suppose you also say that Manganese is oxidized). Oxygen, of course, is the oxidizing agent.
Nitrogen is a fairly poor reducing agent (otherwise we'd all die). So, I'd guess that your metals would be better reducing agents, but undoubtedly BC has the data to back that up.
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As an aside, nitrogen is thermodynamically a good enough reducing agent to react with air and water to produce nitric acid.
Fortunately for us, that reaction is very slow or there would be no O2 in the air and the lakes would be dilute nitric acid.
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The Earth has a very benign Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere would life thrive if the Nitrogen was replaced with say Argon or Neon ?.
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The Earth has a very benign Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere would life thrive if the Nitrogen was replaced with say Argon or Neon ?.
Yes & No.
"Life" on Earth needs both Carbon and Nitrogen to survive. But, obviously life is happy with 0.04% CO2, so it could likely adapt to a similarly low Nitrogen percent, say about 1% Nitrogen.
Neon may well be too light.
MW:
N2: 28 (78% of atmosphere)
O2: 32 (21% of atmosphere)
CO2: 44 (0.04% of atmosphere)
Neon: 20 (18.18 ppmv (0.001818%))
Argon: 39 (9,340 ppmv (0.9340%))
One would expect neon to be more prevalent than Argon since it is a lighter molecule, which is in fact the case on Jupiter. Thus, it is likely that Earth is unable to hold Neon in the atmosphere, and it is slowly lost in to space, which would not be good for the future of life in a neon atmosphere.
Argon is heavy, but presumably one could find an O2/Argon ratio that would keep the low altitude O2 levels adequately high.
Divers routinely substitute Nitrogen with Helium in their breathing gas to prevent nitrogen narcosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_narcosis). Thus, at least for short periods, the body can survive just fine breathing in an inert gas in place of Nitrogen.
A higher oxygen percentage, say 99% oxygen would be very dangerous, as early astronauts found out. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1#Fire)