Nitrogen By Sean Callahan
About the Element Atomic Number-7 Atomic Symbol-N Atomic Weight-14.00674 Electron Configuration-[He]2s22p3 Atomic Radius-71 pm Melting Point-(-210.0 ?c) Boiling Point-(-195.79 ?c) Oxidation Status-(-3),5 It is about 78% of the gas in our atmosphere
How Nitrogen was Found Nitrogen was discovered by a chemist/ physician named Daniel Rutherford in 1772 Removed oxygen and carbon dioxide from the air and showed that the residual gas would not support combustion or living organisms, this is what Rutherford did
5 main processes of Nitrogen Cycle
1) Nitrogen Fixation N2 NH4+ Nitrogen fixation is the process wherein N2 is converted to ammonium, essential because it is the only way that organisms can attain nitrogen directly from the atmosphere Nitrogen fixing bacteria often form symbiotic relationships with host plants Free- living nitrogen fixers also nitrogen fixing bacteria that exist without plant hosts High-energy natural events such as lightning, forest fires, and even hot lava flows can cause the fixation of smaller, but significant amounts of nitrogen
2) Nitrogen Uptake NH4+ Organic N Ammonia produced by nitrogen fixing bacteria is usually quickly incorporated into protein and other organic nitrogen compounds When organisms closer at the top of the food chain (like us) eat, we are using nitrogen that has been fixed initially by nitrogen fixing bacteria
3) Nitrogen Mineralization Organic N NH4+ After nitrogen is incorporated into organic matter, it is often converted back into inorganic nitrogen by a process called nitrogen mineralization or decay Decomposers come to eat away all the matter from the dead organism After this is done the rest turns into ammonium From then, nitrogen is available for use by plants or for further transformation into nitrate (NO3-) through the process called nitrification
4) Nitrification NH4+ NO3- Ammonium produced by decomposition turns into nitrate through nitrification Nitrification requires the presence of oxygen This process has important consequences like: positive charge prevents ammonium nitrogen from being washed out of the soil (or leached) by rainfall
5) Dentrification NO3- N2+ N2O Dentrification allows oxidized forms of nitrogen such as nitrate and nitrite (NO2-) are converted to dinitrogen (N2) and, to a lesser extent, nitrous oxide gas This process basically carries out bacteria by denitrifying it NO3- NO2- NO N2O N2 this is the sequence which changes nitrate to dinitrogen If converted to dinitrogen, then it is highly doubtful that it will be reconverted to a biologically form because it is a gas and is rapidly lost to the atmosphere
Nitrogen BY Sean Callahan