Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Environmental Chemistry: Unit XIV
Environmental Chemistry: Unit XIV
Environmental Chemistry: Unit XIV
• Pollution has seen since the onset of the industrial revolution during the 19th
century.
• Technological progress facilitated by super efficiency, overproduction,
overconsumption are main causes of serious deterioration of natural
resources.
• Environmental pollution is a problem both in developed and developing
countries. Factors such as population growth and urbanization cause the use
of natural resources to the maximum.
Classification of Environmental Pollution
• The irritant red haze in the traffic and congested places is due to
oxides of nitrogen.
• Higher concentrations of NO2 damage the leaves of plants and retard
the rate of photosynthesis.
• Nitrogen dioxide NO2 is a lung irritant that can lead to an acute
respiratory disease in children.
Hydrocarbons
Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC):
•CFC are man-made industrial organic chemical
compound that contains only carbon, chlorine, and
fluorine.
•The most common representative is
dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12 or Freon-12).
•Many CFCs have been widely used as refrigerants,
propellants (in aerosol applications), and solvents.
Because CFCs contribute to ozone depletion in the upper
atmosphere.
Acid Rain
• Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form
of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric
acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms.
This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.
• Acid rain is a precipitation with unusually acidic due to possesses
elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Normally rain water has a
pH of 5.6 due to the presence of H+ ions formed by the reaction of
rain water with CO2 together to form carbonic acid.
• PM2.5 : Fine inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 2.5
micrometers and smaller.
Smog
• Kind of air pollution originally named for the mixture of smoke and
fog in the air. There are two types of smog…
• Classical smog: occurs in cool humid climate. It is a mixture of
smoke, fog and sulphur dioxide (SO2).
• Photochemical smog: Photochemical smog is a mixture of
pollutants that are formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) react to sunlight, creating a brown
haze occurs in warm, dry and sunny climate. It produced by
automobiles and factories.
Formation of photochemical smog
• When fossil fuels are burnt, a variety of pollutants are emitted into
the earth’s troposphere.
• Sources: In nature bushfires, lightning and the microbial
processes are natural sources and combustion incomplete of fossil
fuels are anthropogenic sources of formation smog.
How is smog formed?
NO is converted into nitrogen dioxide (NO2). This NO2 in turn absorbs energy from
sunlight and breaks up into nitric oxide and free oxygen atom.
Oxygen atoms are very reactive and combine with the O2 in air to produce O3
The O3 reacts rapidly with the NO(g) formed in the reaction (i) to regenerate NO2
contribute to haze.
O3 is a toxic gas and both NO2 and O3 react with the un burnt hydrocarbons in the
polluted air to produce chemicals such as formaldehyde, acrolein and
peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN).
Effects of photochemical smog
Californium dichloride
Hypochlorite
Pesticides:
• They synthetic toxic chemicals and are used to stop the
reproduction and growth of unwanted organisms.
• Synthetic pesticides has possible effect upon human health. For
example DDT, Aldrin and Dieldrin.
• They transferred from lower trophic level to higher trophic level
through food chain
• They causes serious metabolic and physiological disorders.
Herbicides:
• Herbicides are used to kill weeds.
Sodium chlorates, NaClO3 and
sodium arsenite Na3AsO3 were
commonly used as weed killers.
• Organic herbicides now used.
They are much more toxic to certain
type of plants than to others.
• Organic herbicides such as trizines
are presently widely used to kill
weeds in cornfields.
Fungicides:
• Fungicides are the pesticides used to check the growth of fungi.
• Fungi, are plants without chlorophyll, they cannot use solar
energy for preparing their food. They live as saprophytes.
• Organic compounds of mercury have been used as fungicides and
this has detrimental effect
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
o Industrial wastes are contribute to
major sources of Environmental
pollution.
o Chemical and other wastes polluting
the air, water, and land and causing
pollution and climate change which is
dangerous for earth’s biodiversity.
o Industries discharges biodegradable
and non-degradable wastes.
Biodegradable wastes are generated by
cotton mills, food processing units,
paper mills, Pharmaceuticals and
textile factories.
oNon-biodegradable wastes are
generated by power plants, steel
plants, metallic industries, Fertilizer
industries etc.,
Strategies to control Environmental Pollution
• Pollution prevention methodology to reduces the amount of pollution
generated by industry, agriculture or consumers.
Waste Management