to form azides;with the vapor of zinc, mercury cadmium, and arsenic to form nitrides; and with many hydrocarbons toform hydrocyanic acid and cyanides, also known as nitriles. Activated nitrogen returns toordinary nitrogen in about one minute.In the combined state nitrogen takes part in many reactions; itforms so many compounds that a systematic scheme of compounds containing nitrogen in place of oxygenwas created by the American chemist Edward Franklin. In compounds nitrogen exists in all thevalence states between -3 and +5. Ammonia, hydrazine, and hydroxylamine represent compounds in which thevalence of nitrogen is -3, -2, and -1, respectively. Oxides of nitrogen represent nitrogen in all thepositive valence states.Most of the nitrogen used in the chemical industry is obtainedby the fractional distillation of liquid air. It is then used to synthesize ammonia. From ammoniaproduced in this manner, a wide variety of important chemical products are prepared, including fertilizers,nitric acid, urea, hydrazine, and amines. In addition, an ammonia compound is used in the preparation of nitrousoxide (N 0) a colorless gas popularly known as laughing gas. Mixed with oxygen, nitrous oxide isused as an anesthetic for some types of surgery.Used as a coolant, liquid nitrogen has found widespreadapplication in the field of cryogenics. With the recent advent of ceramic materials that become superconductiveat the boiling point of nitrogen, the use of nitrogen as a coolant is increasing.In conclusion, it seems as if Nitrogen is very helpful in themodern world. It is used in dentists office's to using it for industrial applications. Without this elementthe world would be a little different in some fields....
