Who Discovered Nitrogen and interesting facts about it

Nitrogen is a chemical element with the symbol N and has an atomic number of 7. Nitrogen is a very important element for organisms and in industry. Nitrogen is a very important part of amino acids and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).

Who Discovered Nitrogen:

Nitrogen was discovered by David Rutherford in 1772. He called it noxious air or fixed air. By the late 18th century, most chemists knew of this fraction of air (nitrogen with some other gases) that did not combust. A few years after 1772, nitrogen was also studied by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestley. They referred to it as burnt air or phlogisticated air. Through various studies it was shown that animals suffocated in nitrogen. We now know that this is because animals breathe oxygen and will suffocate if there is no oxygen.

Compounds of nitrogen were known in the Middle Ages. Nitric acid was called ‘strong water’ and a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid was celebrated for its amazing ability to dissolve gold. Potassium nitrate was also used hundreds of years ago in gunpowder and more recently as fertilizer.

Four Facts about Nitrogen:

Fact 1: Nitrogen is fairly unreactive at standard temperature and pressure. It is very unreactive due to the strong triple bond in a nitrogen molecule that is difficult to break down. Nitrogen does, however, form a variety of different compounds with transition metals.

Fact 2: Nitrogen gas is colorless, tasteless and odorless.

Fact 3: Nitrogen gas is the most abundant gas in the air. It constitutes 78% of the air.

Fact 4: Some bacteria ‘fix’ nitrogen, converting it to forms that are more useful to plants.

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