Composition of air

The air around us is a mixture of gases, mainly nitrogen and oxygen, but containing much smaller amounts of water vapor, argon, and carbon dioxide, and very small amounts of other gases.

Nitrogen
Nitrogen Physical Properties It is a relatively inert gas. It is colorless, odorless and tasteless.

Liquid nitrogen is also colorless and odorless, and is similar in appearance to water.

There are two allotropic forms of solid nitrogen, a and b, with a transition between the two forms at -237 C.

Density : 1.25*10-3 g.cm-3 at 20C

Melting point : -210 C

Boiling point : -195.8 C

Nitrogen Chemical Properties

Nitrogen form compounds through biological activity, at high temperature, or at moderate temperature with the aid of catalysts.

It forms nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide with oxygen, ammonia with hydrogen, and nitrogen sulfide with sulfur.

At high temperatures it will combine with certain active metals, such as lithium, magnesium and titanium to form nitrides.

It is non-flammable and will not support combustion.