carbon di oxide

[Docscientist]

What is the importance of carbon di oxide in our environment?

[Phi for All]

Is this for homework? It seems like a very googleable subject.

 

Or are you looking for answers beyond respiration and photosynthesis?

[Rajnish Kaushik]

Humans use carbon dioxide in many different ways. The most familiar example is its use in soft drinks and beer, to make them fizzy. Carbon dioxide released by baking powder or yeast makes cake batter rise.
Some fire extinguishers use carbon dioxide because it is denser than air. Carbon dioxide can blanket a fire, because of its heaviness. It prevents oxygen from getting to the fire and as a result, the burning material is deprived of the oxygen it needs to continue burning.
Carbon dioxide is also used in a technology called supercritical fluid extraction that is used to decaffeinate coffee. The solid form of carbon dioxide, commonly known as Dry Ice, is used in theatres to create stage fogs and make things like "magic potions" bubble.

Carbon dioxide is one of the most abundant gasses in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide plays an important part in vital plant and animal process, such as photosynthesis and respiration. These processes will be briefly explained here.

Green plants convert carbon dioxide and water into food compounds, such as glucose, and oxygen. This process is called photosynthesis.

The reaction of photosynthesis is as follows:
6 CO₂ + 6 H₂O --> C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6 O₂

Plants and animals, in turn, convert the food compounds by combining it with oxygen to release energy for growth and other life activities. This is the respiration process, the reverse of photosynthesis.

The respiration reaction is as follows:
C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6 O₂ --> 6 CO₂ + 6 H₂O

Photosynthesis and respiration play an important role in the carbon cycle and are at equilibrium with one another.
Photosynthesis dominates during the warmer part of the year and respiration dominates during the colder part of the year. However, both processes occur the entire year. Overall, then, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere decreases during the growing season and increases during the rest of the year.
Because the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres are opposite, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing in the north while decreasing in the south, and vice versa. The cycle is more clearly present in the northern hemisphere; because it has relatively more land mass and terrestrial vegetation. Oceans dominate the southern hemisphere.

Influence of carbon dioxide on alkalinity

Carbon dioxide can change the pH of water. This is how it works:

Carbon dioxide dissolves slightly in water to form a weak acid called carbonic acid, H₂CO₃, according to the following reaction:
CO₂ + H₂O --> H₂CO₃

After that, carbonic acid reacts slightly and reversibly in water to form a hydronium cation, H₃O+, and the bicarbonate ion, HCO³-, according to the following reaction:
H₂CO₃ + H₂O --> HCO₃^- + H₃O⁺

This chemical behaviour explains why water, which normally has a neutral pH of 7 has an acidic pH of approximately 5.5 when it has been exposed to air.

[MatFG]

Humans use carbon dioxide in many different ways. The most familiar example is its use in soft drinks and beer, to make them fizzy. Carbon dioxide released by baking powder or yeast makes cake batter rise....

You should really cite your sources...

http://www.lenntech.com/carbon-dioxide.htm

[Ophiolite]

You should really cite your sources...

http://www.lenntech.com/carbon-dioxide.htm

Well caught!