(d) Name some common atmospheric pollutants.

Ans: Clean atmosphere is essential for life, unfortunately it isn’t clean as it contains atmospheric pollutants which are
harmful to us and it occurs when harmful or excessive quantities of substances are introduced into Earth's
atmosphere. Some of the common atmospheric pollutants are carbon monoxide, methane, oxides of
nitrogen(NO,NO2) ozone, sulfur dioxide, unburned hydrocarbons

(e) State the sources of these pollutants.

Ans: The atmospheric pollutants are made from different sources such as carbon monoxide which is formed from
incomplete combustion of fuels such as petrol and methane from bacterial decay of vegetable matter. Nitrogen
oxides are formed from exhaust fumes from vehicles,chemical plants and lightning and ozone forms when electric
spark passes through the air( oxygen) and photochemical reactions responsible for the formation of
photochemical smog. Sulfur dioxide is formed from volcanoes and combustion of fossil fuels as all oils and fuels
contain sulphur and when they are burnt, sulphur dioxide ga is formed which ultimately goes into the atmosphere
dissolves with the water and form sulphuric acid and unburned hydrocarbons from internal combustion engines.
(f) Describe the reactions used in possible
solutions to the problems arising from some of the pollutants named in (d)
(i) the redox reactions in catalytic converters to remove combustion pollutants
(ii) the use of calcium carbonate to reduce the effect of ‘acid rain’ and in flue gas desulfurization

Ans: To solve the rising problem of air pollution caused by the atmospheric pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen,
carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons a catalytic converter is used which is a simple device that uses redox
reactions to oxidise them making them harmless. For example in a car a catalytic converter is attached to the
exhaust of a car in which the hot exhaust gases pass over the catalysts and redox reactions occur for example
carbon monoxide is oxidised to carbon dioxide,oxides of nitrogen to nitrogen and unburnt hydrocarbons are
oxidised to carbon dioxide and water. These atmospheric pollutants are major contributors of acid rain for example
sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen which cause a lot of damage to the earth including corrosion so a reaction
known as Flue Gas Desulfurization is used in which limestone made up of calcium carbonate is widely utilized. In
this reaction the sulfur dioxide is removed from the flue gases.in the Flue Gas Desulphurization plant as sulfur
dioxide passes through the plant, it reacts with an aqueous suspension of calcium carbonate to form solid calcium
sulfite. Calcium Sulfite is further oxidised to calcium sulphate by atmospheric oxygen.