Question

Nitrogen gas is absorbed by
A. Aluminium carbide
B. Calcium carbide
C. Ferrous sulphate
D. Calcium hydroxide

Answer 1

The chemical formula if calcium carbide is $Ca{C_2}$ , it is also known as calcium acetylide. Nitrogen gas is diatomic and is made up of two nitrogen atoms combined with a triple bond, $N \equiv N$ . Hence it is called dinitrogen. Both the compounds are colourless.

Complete step by step answer: Missan and wilson manufactured the calcium carbide in 1894. It was manufactured in an electric furnace on a large scale. Later it was seen by Frank and Caro that barium chloride, when reacted with atmospheric nitrogen, easily yaded barium cyanide. But, in the other case, calcium carbide when reacted with atmosphere could produce only a small amount of cyanide despite using a high amount.
Upon closer examination it was found that most of the atmospheric nitrogen absorbed by calcium carbide was converted to calcium cyanamide. Calcium carbide reacts with nitrogen at high temperature to yield calcium cyanamide as the reaction shows :
$Ca{C_2} + {N_2} \to CaC{N_2} + C$
$CaC{N_2}$ is calcium cyanamide, it is commonly known as the nitrolime.
So, the correct answer is “Option B”.

Additional Information: Calcium cyanide is used as a fertilizer in fields. It can be hydrolysed to form cyanamide $\left( {{H_2}NCN} \right)$

Note: The absorption of atmospheric nitrogen by calcium carbide at a high temperature has a huge significance because calcium carbide finds its application in fertilizers. It can also react with water to produce cyanamide.