Chemical Reactivity of Carbon Dioxide with Hydrogen

What exactly is carbon dioxide?

Every time you exhale, you expel it. It adds carbonation (or fizz) to your soda pop. Plants absorb it from the air and use it to produce food. And you may have seen it as dry ice running across a stage as a theater prop. What exactly is this multipurpose molecule found in our air, body, and even our beverages? Carbon dioxide is a colorless and odorless gas. This session will teach us more about where it can be located and how we can encounter it in our daily lives.

Before delving deeper into the various functions carbon dioxide plays in our life, let’s first look at it from a chemistry aspect. We can figure out what this gas is made of if we split down the name. One carbon atom is connected to two oxygen atoms in a carbon dioxide molecule. CO₂ is the chemical formula for carbon dioxide, and the molecular model is as follows:

If one of the oxygen atoms were removed, we would be left with carbon monoxide, or CO. This exceedingly lethal gas is created by removing just one oxygen atom. CO₂, on the other hand, is completely safe in acceptable concentrations. It is a naturally occurring gas in our environment.

Carbon Dioxide in the Environment

The carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is essential for plants and trees. Remember how we discussed how plants use carbon dioxide to produce food? Let’s take a look at this process, which is known as photosynthesis. Humans, for example, breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Plants, on the other hand, do the opposite: they take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. The carbon dioxide they absorb is utilized to produce sugar, which is frequently used in our meals. The photosynthesis process can be represented mathematically as follows:

4CO₂+12H₂O → C₆H₁₂O₆+ 6H₂O+6O₂

Equation for Photosynthesis

In this equation, CO₂ stands for carbon dioxide, while H₂O stands for water. Plants create glucose, a type of sugar, by using the sun’s energy and a pigment present in green leaves called chlorophyll. The oxygen gas that is emitted is denoted by the symbol O₂.

We, unlike plants, produce CO₂ as a waste substance that our bodies must eliminate. This is useful for plants since they need it to make food. Similarly, it works out good for humans that plants emit oxygen, which adds this crucial gas to our environment.

The majority of the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is caused by the combustion of fossil fuels. CO₂ is released when fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal are consumed. Indeed, people have burned so much fossil fuels over the years that the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have risen significantly. Some believe that rising CO₂ levels have caused a general temperature increase around the world because more heat is trapped in the gasses. This is referred to as global warming.

Explanations (containing key chemical equations):

Carbonic acid is formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water and slowly reacts with it.

CO₂(g) + H₂O (l) →   H₂CO₃ (Hydrogen Dioxide) (aq)

When CO₂ is bubbled into limewater, a murky white solution forms as a result of a reaction between Ca(OH)₂ and either CO₂ or H₂CO₃ to generate an insoluble calcium carbonate precipitate.

H₂CO₃ (aq) + Ca(OH)₂ (aq) => CaCO₃ (s) + 2 H₂O (l)  K_sp = 2.8 x 10^-9

Excess CO₂ or H₂CO₃ in this solution, on the other hand, interacts with the CO₃^2- ion to generate HCO₃–

CO₃^2- (aq) + H₂CO₃  (aq) => HCO₃^2- (aq)

CaCO₃ precipitate dissolves in the presence of high carbonic acid because calcium bicarbonate is soluble in water.

H₂CO₃ (aq) + CaCO₃(s) →  2 HCO₃ + Ca²+ (aq) 

Conclusion 

We conclude that “In a world with otherwise dwindling natural resources such as land, water, energy, minerals, and fertilizer, rising levels of atmospheric CO₂ could be the one global natural resource that is progressively boosting food production and total biological output.