Science Articles & Cool Facts
Did you know that the air we breathe isn’t just oxygen, infact it’s made up of a number of different gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, neon and many others. Each of these gases carry useful properties so separating them from the air around us is extremely beneficial.
The process is called fractional distillation and consists of two steps, the first relies on cooling the air to a very low temperature (i.e. converting it into a liquid), the second involves heating it up thus allowing each gas within the mixture to evaporate at its own boiling point. The key to success here is that every element within air has its own unique boiling temperature. As long as we know these boiling temperatures we know when to collect each gas.
So what are the real world benefits of separating and extracting these gases? Well liquid oxygen is used to power rockets, oxygen gas is used in breathing apparatus, nitrogen is used to make fertilizers, the nitric acid component of nitrogen is used in explosives.
The other gases all have their own uses too, for example argon is used to fill up the empty space in most light bulbs (thanks to its unreactive nature). Carbon dioxide is used in fire extinguishers and is great for putting out fires in burning liquids and electrical fires. There really are too many uses to list but suffice it to say that fractional distillation is an extremely useful process for humans the world over.
these facts are cool and all that but put more
WOOOOOOOO CHEMISTRY IS COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL,,,
Oh mine! that’s absolutely not enough!
May I ask why, in a fractionating column, does nitrogen go to the top (but it boils at -196degC, shouldn’t it sink and get out at the bottom?), and oxygen go to the bottom (as vice versa to nitrogen)?
Hopefully someone may answer me…
these comments are well G-angster lol
Could I ask a picture of Fractional Distillation Of Air Proccess?
i dont know what to do?!?!
can you help?
my teacher isnt making sense in science and we are learning about fractional distillation and it is bugging me. please help me
love from annie xx
Nice, and very helpful for me h/wk!
Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna copy n’ paste, that’s for the idiots!
PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME!!!
great site! makes science seem all the more interestin!
hi,
this information in very reliable, but if it is possible, could you please add allot about the history of fractional distillation of air.
thanks
wt a non sense website…plz improve ur information!!
i think that these facts are so cool.
Not much Informative…………../,/,././,./,./,.//,./,/././././././././[][][][][][][][][]]]]][[[[[[[[[[]=\-0
Woooooooooooooo.
I am so pleased with these answer.Thanks to the person,whoever has Displayed it here for us.
this site is very helpful,it’s better than wikipedia-it’s very,very boring
awesome
I hateee Chemistry and im in year eight and i have to learn it
but this stuff u’ve written is kool 
This Information is not enough. It is rubbish. I have to make project on this topic and this is not enough.Can anyone help me????
needs more info
thatz kul realy weird u knw it drives ma head ntz