Question: What is acid rain? Describe its formation with suitable chemical equation. How does it affect iron and marble?
Answer.
Acid Rain
The rain water having pH less than 5.6 is called acid rain.
Formation
Normal rain water contains CO2 and has pH of 5.6. However, acid rain is formed when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from polluted air dissolve in rain water. Sulphur oxides are produced from reaction of oxygen with sulphur discharged from power plants and nitrogen oxides are produced from reaction of oxygen with nitrogen during burning of fossil fuels in automobiles. Nitrogen oxides are also formed under lightening during thunderstorm. Therefore, during thunderstorm, pH of rain water is further reduced to 2.1 due to formation of more sulphuric acid and nitric acid.
Overall following reaction occur during acid rain formation.
Effects of Acid Rain
Nearly everything is affected by acidic rains. Metals such as iron, marble and statues are destroyed by acidic rains.
On Metal: Acidic rain damages all metal that are exposed to it. For example, sulfuric acid in acidic rain corrodes metals by forming water soluble salt along with hydrogen gas.
On Marble and Statue
Comments
Post a Comment