General Science Quiz: Important Gases and Their Uses

A metal more reactive than hydrogen displaces it from a dilute acid, so zinc with dilute sulphuric acid gives zinc sulphate and hydrogen gas, and this is the standard laboratory preparation of the gas; the test is that it burns with a pop.

Hydrogen has three isotopes: protium with one proton and no neutron, deuterium with one neutron, which gives heavy water, and tritium with two neutrons, which is radioactive and is used in fusion research and in luminous dials.

Chlorine released from chlorofluorocarbons destroys ozone fastest where polar stratospheric clouds form in the extreme cold of winter, because those ice clouds hold the chlorine compounds that sunlight then breaks up; the thinning is therefore deepest over Antarctica, where it is called the ozone hole, and is seen over the…

It is called laughing gas because it produces a feeling of elation when inhaled in small quantities, and it is used as a mild anaesthetic in dentistry and minor surgery and as the propellant in whipped cream; it is also a greenhouse gas.

Argon is chemically inert, so the hot tungsten filament does not react with it, and its presence also slows the evaporation of tungsten, which is why bulbs are filled with argon, sometimes mixed with nitrogen, instead of being left as a vacuum.

When an electric discharge is passed through neon at low pressure it glows a bright reddish orange, which is why the tubes of advertising signs and warning lights are filled with it, and the name neon sign has stuck to such tubes whatever gas they now contain.

Carbon dioxide reacts with lime water, a solution of calcium hydroxide, to form insoluble calcium carbonate, whose fine white particles make the liquid look milky; if more of the gas is passed the milkiness disappears as soluble calcium bicarbonate is formed, and that second step is often the harder half…

In the Haber process nitrogen from the air and hydrogen are combined under high pressure at a few hundred degrees Celsius over a catalyst of finely divided iron, and the ammonia so made is the starting point of nitrogenous fertilisers such as urea and of nitric acid.

Compressed natural gas is mainly methane, the simplest hydrocarbon, and biogas from a gobar gas plant is also mostly methane along with carbon dioxide, produced by the anaerobic decay of organic matter; methane is also called marsh gas because it bubbles up from waterlogged ground.

Carbon monoxide binds to haemoglobin far more strongly than oxygen does and forms carboxyhaemoglobin, so the blood cannot pick up oxygen even though breathing goes on; the gas is colourless and odourless, which makes it the more dangerous, and it is produced by the incomplete burning of fuel in closed…