Where Did the Carbon Come From

Conditions favorabie for the formation of heiium nuciei iasted for oniy a few hours, and the universe continued to expand without much chemistry taking piace for approximateiy a miiiion years. 

As the universe expanded, it cooied, and the positiveiy charged protons and heiium nuciei combined with eiectrons to give hydrogen and heiium atoms. Together, hydrogen and heiium account for 99% of the mass of the universe and 99.9% of its atoms. Hydrogen is the most abundant eiement 88.6% of the atoms in the universe are hydrogen, and 11.3% are heiium. 

Fusion of a nucieus of with one of heiium 0. Eventuaiiy the heiium, too, becomes de- 

Sometimes a star expiodes in a supernova, casting debris into intersteiiar space. This debris includes the eiements formed during the life of the star, and these eiements find their way into new stars formed when a cioud of matter collapses in on itself. Our own sun is beiieved to be a second generation star, one formed not only from hydrogen and helium, but containing the elements formed in earlier stars as weii. 

According to one theory, earth and the other pianets were formed almost 5 billion years ago from the gas (the soiar nebula) that trailed behind the sun as it rotated. Being remote from the sun s core, the matter in the nebuia was cooler than that in the interior and contracted, accumulating heavier elements and becoming the series of planets that now circle the sun. 

Fusion of a nucleus of with one of helium gives 0. Eventually the helium, too, becomes depleted, and gravitational attraction causes the core to contract and its temperature to increase to the point at which various fusion reactions give yet heavier nuclei. 

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Where did the carbon come from The universe is primarily composed of hydrogen, with lesser amounts of helium, and comparatively little of the heavier elements (which are collectively termed metals by astronomers). The synthesis of elements from the primordial hydrogen, which was formed from the fundamental particles upon the initial stages of cooling after the Big Bang some 15 Gyr ago, is accomplished by nuclear fusion, which requires the high temperatures and pressures within the cores of stars. Our Sun is relatively small in stellar terms, with a mass of c.2 X 1030kg, and is... 

When a candle is burned, a gas is produced—a gas containing carbon dioxide and water vapor. It is useful to describe such a gas as a collection of molecules, each molecule containing smaller units called atoms. Each carbon dioxide molecule contains one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. Each water molecule contains one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. Where did these atoms come from Were they present in the candle before it burned ... 

Cycloheptanone (49) contained a carbonyl and the analysis treated that carbon as C OC where did the second oxygen come from Multiply bonded atoms such as this are found in alkenes, alkynes, carbonyls, and nitriles and they require yet another rule. 

Reaction between carbon monoxide and dihydrogen. The catalysts used were the Pd/Si02 samples described earlier in this paper. The steady-state reaction was first studied at atmospheric pressure in a flow system (Table II). Under the conditions of this work, selectivity was 100% to methane with all catalysts. The site time yield for methanation, STY, is defined as the number of CH molecules produced per second per site where the total number of sites is measured by dihydrogen chemisorption at RT before use, assuming H/Pd = 1. The values of STY increased almost three times as the particle size decreased. The data obtained by Vannice et al. (11,12) are included in Table II and we can see that the methanation reaction on palladium is structure-sensitive. It must also be noted that no increase of STY occurred by adding methanol to the feed stream which indicates that methane did not come from methanol. 

The largest volumes of closure wastes will be steel and other metals, activated carbon, halogenated plastic, and concrete. These wastes will for the most part have agent contamination of <1 VSL because they did not come from the areas where neat agent was being processed. It should be possible to ship them to an appropriate TSDF as hazardous waste for further treatment or disposal. 

Where, then, did our modern atmosphere come from The answer seems to be volcanoes. As well as emitting sulphurous fumes (which would have precipitated in the rain), volcanic gases include nitrogen and carbon dioxide (in about the right balance), tiny amounts of neon, and almost no methane, ammonia or oxygen. 

Where did that come from Recall the McLafferty fragmentation of carbonyl compounds It results in cleavage between the a and (3 carbons according to the following process ... 

The Pamukkale cavern wasn t the only place where carbon dioxide wreaked havoc with human lives. On August 21,1986, a terrible natural-chemical accident occurred in Cameroon, Africa. Within hours, thousands of animals and people had died in the area around Lake Nyos. It was as if some celestial plague had struck people dead in their tracks, but the dead showed no outward signs of disease. The culprit turned out to be carbon dioxide gas — the gas that bubbles from our soft drinks and that we exhale after every intake of breath. Where did it come from The bottom of the lake. 

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