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Agriculture and Industry
Agriculture and Industry
Agriculture and Industry
Pesticides
Crops must compete successfully for resources in order to survive and produce a
good yield.
If the competition is too fierce, the crop yield can be seriously affected; this can
cause huge problems for farmers, who depend upon the crop yield in order to maintain
a healthy income.
Pesticides can be used to alleviate some of the competition that may cause the
Herbicides kill other plants (weeds etc.) which may compete with the crop,
insecticides kill insects which eat the crop, and fungicides eradicate moulds which may
rot plants/seeds.
Pesticides are also used to control many disease carrying organisms, such as
mosquitoes, which are renowned for spreading the malarial parasite in the tropics.
them are toxic and can be damaging to human health and the environment if they are
They may also kill other organisms other than those which they are intended to kill;
this can even be advantageous to the pest; the pesticide may eradicate the pest’s
natural predator.
Other problems include leaching (the pesticide dissolves into water and is
transported to the water supply, contaminating it) and assimilation through the food
Unable to remain in the soil and travel into the water supply.
Many highly active compounds have been developed which are effective at low
dosages; others have been designed which satisfy the smaller, specialised markets.
The process usually starts with the discovery of a new compound which works
effectively as a pesticide.
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Chemists will then systematically alter the structure of the compound and then test
it on various pests.
Hundreds of field trials will then be conducted on the substances chosen for
development.
Ease of manufacture.
Toxicity.
DDT
Fat soluble molecules are usually the most effective pesticides; because they are
nonpolar, they are able to dissolve in the fatty tissues of the pest and so reach the
However, their solubility in organic substances may cause them to accumulate and
DDT was discovered in Germany, 1939; it has prevented millions of deaths from
A specific enzyme found in mammals, catalyses the removal of HCl from DDT
that fits into a specific receptor site, whereas DDE is a planar molecule that is unable
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Some insects have also developed the specific enzyme and are thus resistant to DDT.
It has been banned in many countries, but is still used in developing countries due
Parathyroids
insecticides.
Pyrethrins are ideal insecticides in that they are powerful and are harmless to
Unfortunately, the natural pyrethrins are unstable in light; they are of limited use in
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The pyrethroids work by binding to membrane proteins within the nerve cells of
insects.
Nerve cell membranes act as channels for the passage into and out of the cells; the
pyrethroids work by penetrating the nerve cell membrane, blocking open the sodium
channels; this leads to the massive disruption of the nervous system of insects.
Pyrethroids are much more soluble in fats than in water; they are therefore able to
The pyrethroids are harmless to mammals, as the ester linkage within them is
hydrolysed (by digestive enzymes) to polar products; these polar products are unable
Even though the pyrethroids are able to kill certain insects which live in the soil, they
This was because the pyrethroids became irreversibly bounded to organic matter in
the soil, where it became rapidly broken down into inactive compounds.
Chemists at ICI developed pyrethroids with lower boiling points so that more of the
molecules would vaporise into the air spaces into the soil. The compound then enters
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The new pyrethroids was named Tefluthrin and is currently marketed as “Force”:
Herbicides
There are two different types of herbicide; total herbicides which destroy all green
material and selective herbicides which only destroy selected plant material.
Paraquat is total herbicide; it is inactive once it reaches the soil, as it is absorbed and
decomposed by soil material; therefore it only kills those plants whose leaves it comes
Each soil is only capable of holding a particular amount of paraquat; the strong
If a greater amount of paraquat is then added, it will be displaced into the soil water,
Total herbicides are used to clear a large area of land before the crop is planted.
Selective herbicides are then used to kill the other plants that may be competing
Selective herbicides have been developed which only kill broadleaved plants,
grasses, grassy weeds etc. The pesticide is selected to suit the type of crop being
grown.
Nitrogen Cycle
Almost all of the nitrogen in the soil is present in complex organic molecules and so is not
available to plants.
However, various processes convert the unreactive atmospheric nitrogen and organic nitrogen
compounds into ammonium and nitrate ions which are available to plants.
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12/02/2015 Inorganic Fertilisers
Inorganic Fertilisers
Today, more than half of the world’s cereal production relies on inorganic fertilisers.
The raw materials used to produce inorganic fertilisers are water, air, natural gas,
At the core of fertiliser production is the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and
In 1909, Fritz Haber successfully synthesised 100g of ammonia from nitrogen and
hydrogen.
Carl Bosch then scaled up his process and the first industrial plant opened in 1913,
Modern ammonia plants work on the same principles as the original plants, but now
In the modern plants, the hydrogen is formed by reacting water with natural gas.
Purified nitrogen from the air is then mixed with the hydrogen; the mixture is
nitrogen at the same time as it is being produced; the reaction will eventually reach
equilibrium.
The equilibrium mixture depends upon the temperature and pressure chosen for the
reaction.
As can be seen from the reaction above, four moles of gaseous reactants (hydrogen
and nitrogen) react to form two moles of gaseous product (ammonia). Using Le
disturbance, responds in a way that tends to minimize the effect of the disturbance”,
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the maximum yield of ammonia can be obtained by subjecting the reaction to a high
pressure.
The forward direction of the reaction is exothermic, thus to obtain the maximum
However, high pressures are very expensive to achieve, and at low temperatures, the
rate of the reaction will be very slow. Therefore, those reaction conditions which give
yield and the rate of the reaction; it is better to get moderate yields of ammonia
Ammonia, due to the hydrogen bonding that occurs between its molecules, has a
higher boiling point than nitrogen and hydrogen. Thus the ammonia can be liquefied
and tapped off from the mixture as it is produced; this results in a greater yield of
ammonia.
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12/02/2015 Reaction rates, temperature and catalysis
The effect of using a catalyst and increasing the temperature can be explained using
The basic principle of the collision theory is that chemicals react when their particles
Take the following reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen to produce ammonia:
The collision theory states that H 2 and N2 will react when they collide with enough
energy. The more frequently they collide, the faster the reaction.
If the pressure is increased, there will be more molecules of gas per unit volume;
this will mean that there will be a greater chance of a successful collision; therefore the
rate of the reaction is greater. This is one of the reasons why the Haber process uses
high pressures.
Increasing the temperature of the reaction gives the molecules more kinetic energy;
this means that they will be moving around faster and will therefore be more likely to
collide and successfully react. It is possible to calculate how much faster they move
around, for the speed of the molecules is proportional to the square root of the
then the speed of the molecules will increase by a factor of ; however the
This is related to the other part of the collision theory, which states that the particles
Unless they collide with this minimum amount of energy, they simply bounce off one
another and remain unreacted: this happens to most of the molecules most of the
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12/02/2015 Reaction rates, temperature and catalysis
At any given temperature, the kinetic energies of the molecules in a substance are
spread over a wide range of values; some will have very high kinetic energies and
Distribution:
As the temperature increases, the molecules move at higher speeds and therefore
temperature by 10 K:
The effect of temperature on the rate of the reaction can be seen if the activation
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Only those molecules with energy greater than the activation energy are able to
react; this is represented by the areas beneath the graphs to the right of the activation
energy line.
As you can see, at the higher temperature, a greater proportion of the molecules
have energies above the activation energy; this means that more molecules will have
Increasing the temperature does not make much difference to the individual
molecule, but it does make a significant difference to the proportion of molecules with
rate = k [A]a[B]b
For many reactions, if the temperature of the reaction is increased by 10 K, the rate
Since the concentrations of the reactants are not changed, the equation above shows
Catalysis
Catalysts work by providing an alternative reaction pathway for the breaking and
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remaking of bonds. The activation energy for this new pathway is often less than the
There are two different kinds of catalyst: heterogeneous catalysts are in a different
state as the reactants, and homogenous catalysts are in the same state as the
reactants.
However the catalyst works, its effect is always the same. A catalyst lowers the
activation energy needed for a reaction to occur; the molecular energy distribution
remains the same, but as the activation energy is lower, a greater proportion of
molecules will be above that energy and will therefore be able to react successfully.
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Adhering to the catalyst surface uses electrons and so weakens the bonds in
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12/02/2015 Equilibria and Partial Pressures
If it is left for long enough, it will eventually reach dynamic equilibrium; this is where
the forward and backward reactions are occurring at the same rate; therefore the
the other gases present; the total pressure (P) of the mixture is therefore equal to the
constant for the reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen to form ammonia:
It is much more convenient to write the expression for the equilibrium constant in
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Units
Pressure can be measured in Newtons per square metre (N m2); this can also be
Therefore the units for the equilibrium constant for the reaction between iodine and
The units cancel out, so there are no units for the equilibrium constant for the
As for Kc, the units for each Kp expression must be worked out.
If the total pressure of a gas mixture at equilibrium is increased, then the reaction
present; therefore the position of equilibrium will shift to the side with the fewest
In the reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen to form ammonia, there are four
molecules of gas on the reactant side for every two molecules of gas on the product
side:
Therefore, if the pressure is increased, the position of equilibrium will shift to the
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The nitrogen and hydrogen react according to a 1:3 ratio, therefore the 99.76% is split
PN2 = 0.2494 * 1
PH2 = 0.7482 * 1
PN2 = 0.0024 * 1
pressures:
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The Kp is constant for each reaction providing the temperature does not change.
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12/02/2015 Partition Equilibria
Partition Equilibria
In addition to phase equilibria (between gaseous and liquid state), and chemical
equilibria, there is also an equilibrium that exists between solutes in different solvents.
Iodine is a Group VII liquid that dissolves in both inorganic and organic solvents,
If this solution is then added to a separating funnel with CCl4, the iodine passes
The layers could be run into separate containers and the concentration of iodine in
The value for the equilibrium constant comes out at around 84. This particular kind
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The partition coefficient in the above example is determined by the fact that iodine is
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12/02/2015 Group V and Nitrogen
Group V of the periodic table shares similar characteristics of the other groups of the
pblock; at the top of the groups are the nonmetals (nitrogen and phosphorus) and at
the bottom of the group are the metalloids (antimony and bismuth).
Atoms of the Group V elements can form three covalent bonds by sharing the three
unpaired pelectrons.
This gives them compounds in which the Group V element has an oxidation state of
+3 or 3.
The lone pair of electrons that each element has allows them to form dative bonds.
This enables them to form compounds in which their oxidation state is five.
Nitrogen and phosphorous are very important elements within group five; they are
constituent elements in living things; they are both essential for healthy plant growth.
Nitrogen
unreactive.
This low reactivity arises due to the strong triple bond between nitrogen atoms in N2
molecules.
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In order for nitrogen to react, the triple bond between the nitrogen atoms must be
This requires large amounts of energy, thus the activation energy for reactions
During thunderstorms, the highly energetic lightening flash can provide enough
Once reacted, it can form many useful compounds, for example ammonia, nitrogen
Ammonia
The lone pair of electrons on the ammonia allows it to acts as a nucleophile (donating
Nitrogen Oxides
Nitrogen monoxide (NO), a colourless gas which turns to brown NO2 in air. It is
bacteria.
Nitrates
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There are two types of nitrate ions in the nitrogen cycle: nitrate (III), NO2, and
Their names are distinguishable from one another by their oxidation states.
Home
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12/02/2015 Bonding, Structure and Properties
The structure is the way the atoms are arranged relative to each other.
atoms.
1. The type of basic particles it contains. The substance could contain atoms, ions or
molecules. For example, if it contains ions (such as sodium chloride), then it will conduct
electricity when molten or dissolved in water. To be soluble in water, the substance must
2. The way the basic particles are bonded together. The bonding may be ionic,
covalent, metallic or weak intermolecular forces. The stronger the bonds, the higher the
For example, silica, SiO2, has strong covalent bonds linking every atom to several others
forming a giant covalent structure. The atoms in silica are very hard to separate, and
therefore it is very hard and difficult to melt. Carbon dioxide on the other hand has strong
covalent bonds between the C and O atoms, but only weak intermolecular forces between
each CO2 molecule. The molecules are therefore easily separated and so CO2 has a low
melting/boiling point.
3. The way the particles are arranged relative to one another. The particles may be
dimesnional sheets, and so its layers can move past each other (think of writing using a
graphite pencil). Diamond, on the other hand, has a giant 3dimensional structure and is
The tables below summarises the different structures and their main properties:
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12/02/2015 Bonding, Structure and Properties
There is a trend in the structure of the elements as you move from left to right across a period
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The trends in the structures of the oxides and chlorides are closely linked to the trends in their
properties; for example the acidbase character of the oxides and the behaviour of the chlorides
in water.
It is evident from the following table, that the acidbase properties of the oxides are linked
The general pattern is that oxides with giant ionic lattices are basic, whereas structures with
The bonding in Al2O3 is both ionic and covalent in nature; aluminium oxide is thus amphoteric.
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The behaviour of the chlorides with water is also closely linked to their structure. The general
pattern is for chlorides with giant ionic lattices to simply dissolve in water (no chemical reaction),
whereas the chlorides with covalent molecular structures react, producing fumes of hydrogen
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