49 Facts About Carbon dioxide

1.

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms.

FactSnippet No. 616,673
2.

Carbon dioxide is soluble in water and is found in groundwater, lakes, ice caps, and seawater.

FactSnippet No. 616,674
3.

Carbon dioxide was the first gas to be described as a discrete substance.

FactSnippet No. 616,675
4.

Carbon dioxide's interpretation was that the rest of the charcoal had been transmuted into an invisible substance he termed a "gas" or "wild spirit".

FactSnippet No. 616,676
5.

Properties of carbon dioxide were further studied in the 1750s by the Scottish physician Joseph Black.

FactSnippet No. 616,677
6.

Carbon dioxide found that limestone could be heated or treated with acids to yield a gas he called "fixed air.

FactSnippet No. 616,678
7.

Carbon dioxide used this phenomenon to illustrate that carbon dioxide is produced by animal respiration and microbial fermentation.

FactSnippet No. 616,679
8.

Carbon dioxide was first liquefied in 1823 by Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday.

FactSnippet No. 616,680
9.

The earliest description of solid carbon dioxide was given by the French inventor Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier, who in 1835 opened a pressurized container of liquid carbon dioxide, only to find that the cooling produced by the rapid evaporation of the liquid yielded a "snow" of solid CO2.

FactSnippet No. 616,681
10.

Symmetry of a carbon dioxide molecule is linear and centrosymmetric at its equilibrium geometry.

FactSnippet No. 616,682
11.

Carbon dioxide is soluble in water, in which it reversibly forms, which is a weak acid since its ionization in water is incomplete.

FactSnippet No. 616,683
12.

In metal carbon dioxide complexes, serves as a ligand, which can facilitate the conversion of to other chemicals.

FactSnippet No. 616,684
13.

At temperatures and pressures above the critical point, carbon dioxide behaves as a supercritical fluid known as supercritical carbon dioxide.

FactSnippet No. 616,685
14.

Carbon dioxide can be obtained by distillation from air, but the method is inefficient.

FactSnippet No. 616,686
15.

Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the industrial production of hydrogen by steam reforming and the water gas shift reaction in ammonia production.

FactSnippet No. 616,687
16.

Carbon dioxide is a by-product of the fermentation of sugar in the brewing of beer, whisky and other alcoholic beverages and in the production of bioethanol.

FactSnippet No. 616,688
17.

Carbon dioxide is used by the food industry, the oil industry, and the chemical industry.

FactSnippet No. 616,689
18.

Carbon dioxide is a food additive used as a propellant and acidity regulator in the food industry.

FactSnippet No. 616,690
19.

Carbon dioxide is used to produce carbonated soft drinks and soda water.

FactSnippet No. 616,691
20.

Carbon dioxide is used to create a hypoxic environment for carbonic maceration, the process used to produce Beaujolais wine.

FactSnippet No. 616,692
21.

Carbon dioxide is sometimes used to top up wine bottles or other storage vessels such as barrels to prevent oxidation, though it has the problem that it can dissolve into the wine, making a previously still wine slightly fizzy.

FactSnippet No. 616,693
22.

Carbon dioxide is one of the most commonly used compressed gases for pneumatic systems in portable pressure tools.

FactSnippet No. 616,694
23.

Carbon dioxide is used as an atmosphere for welding, although in the welding arc, it reacts to oxidize most metals.

FactSnippet No. 616,695
24.

Use in the automotive industry is common despite significant evidence that welds made in carbon dioxide are more brittle than those made in more inert atmospheres.

FactSnippet No. 616,696
25.

Liquid carbon dioxide is used in supercritical drying of some food products and technological materials, in the preparation of specimens for scanning electron microscopy and in the decaffeination of coffee beans.

FactSnippet No. 616,697
26.

Carbon dioxide can be used to extinguish flames by flooding the environment around the flame with the gas.

FactSnippet No. 616,698
27.

Carbon dioxide has been widely used as an extinguishing agent in fixed fire-protection systems for local application of specific hazards and total flooding of a protected space.

FactSnippet No. 616,699
28.

Liquid carbon dioxide is a good solvent for many lipophilic organic compounds and is used to remove caffeine from coffee.

FactSnippet No. 616,700
29.

Carbon dioxide has attracted attention in the pharmaceutical and other chemical processing industries as a less toxic alternative to more traditional solvents such as organochlorides.

FactSnippet No. 616,701
30.

Carbon dioxide is used in enhanced oil recovery where it is injected into or adjacent to producing oil wells, usually under supercritical conditions, when it becomes miscible with the oil.

FactSnippet No. 616,702
31.

In enhanced coal bed methane recovery, carbon dioxide would be pumped into the coal seam to displace methane, as opposed to current methods which primarily rely on the removal of water to make the coal seam release its trapped methane.

FactSnippet No. 616,703
32.

Liquid and solid carbon dioxide are important refrigerants, especially in the food industry, where they are employed during the transportation and storage of ice cream and other frozen foods.

FactSnippet No. 616,704
33.

Solid carbon dioxide is called "dry ice" and is used for small shipments where refrigeration equipment is not practical.

FactSnippet No. 616,705
34.

Liquid carbon dioxide was used as a refrigerant prior to the use of dichlorodifluoromethane (R12, a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) compound).

FactSnippet No. 616,706
35.

Carbon dioxide is the lasing medium in a carbon-dioxide laser, which is one of the earliest type of lasers.

FactSnippet No. 616,707
36.

Carbon dioxide can be used as a means of controlling the pH of swimming pools, by continuously adding gas to the water, thus keeping the pH from rising.

FactSnippet No. 616,708
37.

Carbon dioxide induction is commonly used for the euthanasia of laboratory research animals.

FactSnippet No. 616,709
38.

Carbon dioxide is used in several related cleaning and surface-preparation techniques.

FactSnippet No. 616,710
39.

Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is a trace gas, having a global average concentration of 415 parts per million by volume as of the end of year 2020.

FactSnippet No. 616,711
40.

Currently, about half of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere and is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans.

FactSnippet No. 616,712
41.

Carbon dioxide is of greatest concern because it exerts a larger overall warming influence than all of these other gases combined.

FactSnippet No. 616,713
42.

Local concentrations of carbon dioxide can reach high values near strong sources, especially those that are isolated by surrounding terrain.

FactSnippet No. 616,714
43.

Carbon dioxide is introduced into the oceans through hydrothermal vents.

FactSnippet No. 616,715
44.

Carbon dioxide is an end product of cellular respiration in organisms that obtain energy by breaking down sugars, fats and amino acids with oxygen as part of their metabolism.

FactSnippet No. 616,716
45.

Carbon fixation is a biochemical process by which atmospheric carbon dioxide is incorporated by plants, algae and into energy-rich organic molecules such as glucose, thus creating their own food by photosynthesis.

FactSnippet No. 616,717
46.

The physiological effects of acute carbon dioxide exposure are grouped together under the term hypercapnia, a subset of asphyxiation.

FactSnippet No. 616,718
47.

However a review of the literature found that most studies on the phenomenon of carbon dioxide induced cognitive impairment to have a small effect on high-level decision making and most of the studies were confounded by inadequate study designs, environmental comfort, uncertainties in exposure doses and differing cognitive assessments used.

FactSnippet No. 616,719
48.

In humans, this carbon dioxide is carried through the venous system and is breathed out through the lungs, resulting in lower concentrations in the arteries.

FactSnippet No. 616,720
49.

Carbon dioxide is one of the mediators of local autoregulation of blood supply.

FactSnippet No. 616,721