Nitrous oxide discovery

William C. Trogler. e-mail communication, Sept. 25, 2000. Source for DuPont reaction to his nitrous oxide discovery. 

Much later—more than half a century after Carothers invented nylon— scientists at the University of California at San Diego discovered that the production of nylon seemed to contribute a small but significant amount of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. By that time, it was well known that nitrous oxide, N20, is a potent greenhouse gas and ozone destroyer. Within a month of the discovery s publication in 1991, Du Pont and several other nylon producers announced plans to phase out nitrous oxide emissions within five years. 

Davy s research was to make him famous, not because he performed dangerous experiments, but because he discovered a new recreational drug. In 1800 he published a 580-page book titled Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration in which he discussed his discovery of, and researches on, laughing gas. Describing its effects, Davy wrote ... 

Summarizing, we may conclude that intensive studies conducted during the two last decades have uncovered a remarkable oxidation chemistry of nitrous oxide. This chemistry is far from being properly understood. Further studies may lead to new discoveries that are important not only for fundamental knowledge, but also for the development of new chemical technologies, which is strongly supported by the economic advantages of N20 as oxidant. 

Nitrous oxide is a gas with anesthetic (numbness-causing) and (painkilling) analgesic properties. It was first discovered in 1772 by English scientist, theologian, and philosopher Joseph Priestly. Priestly was also the man who co-discovered oxygen (which he termed phlo-gisticated air ). In 1776, he wrote about the discovery of N20, which he called nitrous air. ... 

Which of the following is credited with the discovery of the anesthetic action of nitrous oxide in 1845 ... 

Once before, Davy, son of a poor woodcarver of Penzance, had achieved overnight fame by his discovery of the physiological effects of laughing gas—that colorless nitrous oxide first obtained by Priestley in 1776 and later described by Berzelius to his teacher Afzelius. Distinguished people in all walks of life had come to London to inhale the gas which had raised Davy s pulse upwards of twenty strokes and made him dance about the laboratory as a madman. Even the poet Coleridge was among those who came, but admitted that Davy s epic poem on the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt had interested him more. 

Figure 1.2 The discovery of nitrous oxide ied to its use as an anesthetic and recreationai drug, individuais heid parties at which aii the attendees wouid inhaie nitrous oxide, which produced a state of excitement accompanied by iaughter. Due to this reaction, nitrous oxide became commoniy known as iaughing gas.

Horace Wells, a dentist, attended Colton s nitrous-oxide exhibition in Hartford, Connecticut, and noticed that when one of the audience members who had sniffed nitrous oxide tripped and cut his leg, he was astounded to feel no pain. Wells experimented the very next day by having a fellow dentist pull out one of his own teeth after Wells inhaled nitrous oxide. After awakening and feeling the empty hole where his troublesome wisdom tooth had been. Wells exclaimed, It is the greatest discovery ever made. I didn t feel so much as a prick of a pin ... 

Massachusetts General Hospital in 1845. The first patient came out of anesthesia too soon, and Wells s discovery was not fully understood or appreciated. Wells continued his experiments with anesthetics and later became addicted to the anesthetic chloroform. Sadly, he committed suicide as a result of his chloroform addiction. Though nitrous oxide was not appreciated at its first public hospital demonstration, it is still widely used today as an anesthetic, particularly in combination with other volatile anesthetics during surgeries. Likewise, nitrous-oxide use as a recreational drug has continued from the early nitrous-oxide capers to the present day, with the use of whipping-cream-propellant whippets and nitrous-oxide balloons and canisters. 

Priestly, Joseph. (1733-1804). Bom near Leeds, England, Priestley originally planned to enter the ministry. As a youth he became interested in both physics and chemistry, and his research soon established his position as a scientist. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1766. He discovered nitrous oxide in 1772, but his greatest contribution to science was his discovery of oxygen in 1774. He emigrated from England to Northumberland, PA, where he lived from 1784 to his death. His research in America resulted in the discovery of carbon monoxide (1799). 

The selective insertion of an oxygen atom into a benzene carbon-hydrogen bond to yield phenol is not a classical organic chemistry reaction. The first process for such a reactions was the Solutia process, based on discoveries by Panov and coworkers at the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis in Novosibirsk and then developed in close cooperation with Monsanto. In this process, the oxidant is nitrous oxide, N2O, while an iron-containing zeolite is used as the catalyst (Equation 13.4) ... 

Wells, J. G. A History of the Discovery of the Applications of Nitrous Oxide Gas, Ether and Other Vapours to Surgical Operations. Gaylord Perry Hartford, CT, 1847. 

Anesthesia. In the period around the 1840s it became recognized that certain substances, notably ether, chloroform, and nitrous oxide, could induce a state in which the patient had no awareness of bodily pain. You can imagine how joyfully these new discoveries were received by people who had to undergo surgery that would otherwise be imbear-... 

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