Ch 13 Gases in the atmosphere

Cl 9 Chem
PG 136-143
 pg 137
SLO
KNOW HOW TO REPRESENT A
Know the approximate percentages by volume of

Lesson 13
METALLIC LATTICE BY A 2D
the four most abundant gases in dry air
DIAGRAM
Understand
UNDERSTAND the principle used to find the
METALLIC
percentage
BONDING by volume of oxygenOF
IN TERMS in a sample of air
ELECTROSTATIC
ATTRACTIONS
What is air?
 Composition of air
Air is a mixture of gases

The proportion of different

gases varies

The table shows the

percentage composition by
volume of dry air
 Composition of air
The most abundant gas in air is nitrogen, which makes
up almost 4/5 of air

Next is oxygen, which makes up 1/5 by volume of air

The rest is made up of several other gases, including

noble gases such as argon and helium

Depending on the location, air could have various

amounts of pollutant gases such as Sulphur and
nitrogen oxides
Composition of air
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMenuLJmV0I

Air also contains differing proportions of water vapour depending on the location,
from 0-4%

For example, the air in the sahara desert is considerably drier than the air in the
amazon rain forest

Although the percentage of CO2 is quite low, it has been steadily rising since the
industrial revolution and proliferation of fossil fuel burning
Composition of air
History of the atmosphere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl34dmbtmnU
Uses of air
Oxygen is used by living organisms for respiration

It is also necessary for combustion reactions, i.e. burning. It is a strong oxidising

agent

Nitrogen is used by plants for their growth. However, they cannot directly use it.
Bacteria in the soil convert the nitrogen into nitrates which are then absorbed by the
plants

Nitrogen is also reacted with hydrogen to produce ammonia in the Haber process
Uses of air
Carbon dioxide is used by plants and some microorganisms to produce food through
photosynthesis

Since it does not burn, it can be used as a flame retardant in flame extinguishers

Helium is lighter than air. So, it is used in balloons

 The percentage of O2
It is possible to determine the percentage by volume of oxygen in a given volume of air through
experiments
We will learn about different experiments that achieve this goal
However, they all share a common principle:
A particular amount of air has a specific amount of oxygen
If we can use up that oxygen through a chemical reaction, we can remove the oxygen from that
sample of air
This means that the new volume of the air will be the due to all the other gases that make up air,
minus oxygen.
 The percentage of O2
From here, we can calculate the volume of oxygen that was present in the air by subtracting the
final volume of air (lacking oxygen) from the initial volume of air (including oxygen)

We can then find the percentage by volume of oxygen in that air sample by dividing the volume
of air by the total initial volume and multiplying by 100%

While carrying out such experiments, it is important to ensure that all of the oxygen is used up

To ensure this, whichever reagent is used to react with the oxygen, it must be used in excess
 Test for oxygen O2
Since oxygen is a colourless, odourless gas, it is hard to directly identify

As oxygen is necessary for burning, we can use this to test for its presence

Oxygen relights a glowing splint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkADcJcPhuE

If the splint does not relight, oxygen is not present

We can use this to test whether all the oxygen in a sample of air has been used up
Practice questions
 Practice questions

Nitrogen: 79% Oxygen: 21% Carbon dioxide: 0.04% Argon: 0.9%

 Practice questions
Explain the change in the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in air now compared to billions of
years ago
 Practice questions
In the past, O2 levels were very low and CO2 levels were much higher. The change occurred due
to bacteria that used the CO2 to make food and produced O2 as a byproduct
 pg 138-139
SLO
KNOW HOW TO REPRESENT A
Understand how to carry out an experiment to find

Lesson 14
METALLIC LATTICE BY A 2D
the percentage by volume of oxygen in a sample of
DIAGRAM
air using copper
UNDERSTAND METALLIC
BONDING IN TERMS OF
ELECTROSTATIC
ATTRACTIONS
What happens when copper reacts with oxygen?
 Expt to find % comp. of O2 using Cu
As we have previously
discussed, to find the % of O2 in
air, we must first use up all the
oxygen in a particular sample of
air through a reaction

In this experiment, we will use the reaction between copper and oxygen to form copper oxide
for this purpose:
Expt to find % comp. of O2 using Cu
Expt to find % comp. of O2 using Cu
Expt to find % comp. of O2 using Cu
Expt to find % comp. of O2 using Cu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2IYNT7BUTc

We can test see whether all the oxygen is used up using a glowing splint:

If there is no more oxygen left, the splint should not relight. This is because nitrogen is
quite unreactive
Expt to find % comp. of O2 using Cu
As the reaction progresses, the copper turns black due to the formation of
copper (ii) oxide

The copper must be heated in order to start the reaction as copper does not react with
oxygen at room temperature

To ensure all the oxygen comes into contact with the copper, reacts, and is thus used up,
the plungers are pushed alternately until the volume of air in the syringes does not
change further and there is some copper left over
Expt to find % comp. of O2
Similar to the use of Cu to find the percentage of O2 in air, other elements that react
with O2 can also be used

In the next class, we will learn about two: Fe and P

 Assignment
Go to Google Classroom and complete the assignment for today

You have 10 minutes

 Assignment
The volume of air in the syringes decreases because

the oxygen in the air reacts with the hot copper

Which of the following would you expect the final volume of air in the
apparatus to be?

79
 Assignment
Why do you need to heat the copper?

The copper must be heated in order to start the reaction as copper

does not react with oxygen at room temperature
 Assignment
Why do you need to push the plungers back and forth?

To ensure all the oxygen comes into contact with the copper, reacts,
and is thus used up

What is the name of the black compound that is formed?

copper (ii) oxide

 Assignment
Explain what would happen if the copper was not used in excess

All of the oxygen would not have enough copper to react with. This
would mean that there would be some oxygen gas left over in the air
inside the apparatus. as such, the final reading of volume would
include that left over oxygen gas. If this measurement was used to
calculate the percentage of oxygen in the air sample, the percentage
would be lower than expected, i.e. less than 20.9%
This chapter will be
continued next week