Nitrogen is the most abundant element in our
atmosphere
and is essential for life; however, its gaseous diatomic
form is inert.
Ammonia is composed of one part nitrogen and
three parts hydrogen
but if you combine nitrogen gas with hydrogen nothing
happens.
Plants harbor an enzyme in a bacterium to break
nitrogen-nitrogen bonds
to convert nitrogen gas to ammonia or nitrate. Before an
efficient industrial process
was available, nitrate or ammonia was extracted
from camel dung,
and from the distillation of coal, and by the decomposition
of natural ammonium salts.
Fritz Haber discovered that iron filings worked
as a catalyst, producing ammonia,
and by increasing heat and pressure managed to increase the
yield to six percent.
Six percent was commercially viable, especially
when
the unreacted nitrogen and hydrogen gases could be
recirculated over and over.
Fertilizer, bombs, and other
uses
Cleaner
Disinfectant
Explosive
Fertilizer
Lifting gas
Refrigerant
Rocket fuel
Stimulant
Irritant
A colorless and irritating gas with an acrid
odor,
ammonia is corrosive when mixed with water,
and can burn the skin,
cause blindness,
brain damage,
lung damage,
or death.
Ethics
In World War I, the Germans
had no shortage of ammonia for bombs and rocket fuel
due to Fritz Haber, a Jew. Haber also worked hard
to develop chemical weapons for the Germans,
leading the teams that developed chlorine gas and gas
masks,
and personally overseeing the first gas releases on the
front lines.
In the twenties, at Haber’s institute,
scientists developed the cyanide gas Zyclon A,
which the Nazis modified and used to murder Jews
in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Both his wife Clara and his son Hermann
committed suicide over their conflicts
with his work on chemical warefare agents.
All organic life, animal and plant, relies on trace amounts
of water-soluble nitrogen. We do not get it by breathing air,
which contains 78.09% diatomic nitrogen gas. Bacteria in the
digestive tract break down proteins into nitrogen compounds
including ammonia. The liver removes extra ammonia from the
bloodstream by converting it to urea which is released from the
body in urine.
All organic life, animal and plant, relies on trace amounts of water-soluble nitrogen. We do not get it by breathing air, which contains 78.09% diatomic nitrogen gas. Bacteria in the digestive tract break down proteins into nitrogen compounds including ammonia. The liver removes extra ammonia from the bloodstream by converting it to urea which is released from the body in urine.
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