A nifty move with nitrogen has brought the world one step closer to creating a range of useful products—from dyes to pharmaceuticals—out of thin air.
The discovery comes from a team of Yale chemists who found a way to combine atmospheric nitrogen with benzene to make a chemical compound called aniline, which is a precursor to materials used to make an assortment of synthetic products.
[...] Holland said previous attempts by other researchers to combine atmospheric nitrogen and benzene failed. Those attempts used highly reactive derivatives of benzene that would degrade before they could produce a chemical reaction with nitrogen.
Holland and his colleagues used an iron compound to break down one of the chemical bonds in benzene. They also treated the nitrogen with a silicon compound that allowed the nitrogen to combine with benzene.
Journal Reference:
Sean F. McWilliams et al. Coupling dinitrogen and hydrocarbons through aryl migration, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2565-5
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday August 13 2020, @02:35PM (2 children)
It's a liquid composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. Best thing you never saw!
(Score: 3, Touché) by richtopia on Thursday August 13 2020, @04:06PM (1 child)
I think thin air is mostly CO2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars [wikipedia.org]
At least that is what I think of when I hear "Thin Air".
For further reference on the Richard scale of air:
Thick Air: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars [wikipedia.org]
Air: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth [wikipedia.org]
Thin Air: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars [wikipedia.org]
Funny Air: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @04:35PM
Thick Air: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus [wikipedia.org]