Carbon Monoxide: Useful but Deadly

The Silent Killer Used to Make Detergents and Acetic Acid

Feb 2, 2008

Carbon monoxide is a simple molecule which regularly gets a bad reputation in the press, but is continually useful in many parts of the chemical industry.

The very versatile element, carbon, which forms the basis for all of Organic Chemistry, has two important inorganic oxides. Carbon Dioxide is the main greenhouse gas and its production is constantly monitored by pressure groups throughout the world.

Carbon Monoxide, however, only ever gets in the news when it has killed someone, which is surprisingly often for a small molecule.

Molecule Make-up

Carbon monoxide is a gas made up of molecules containing one carbon atom and one oxygen atom joined together with a multiple covalent bond. It is used in industry to make chemicals useful in other processes such as aldehydes that can be used to make detergents, methanol which can be used to make larger hydrocarbon molecules, and in the production of acetic acid.

Industrial Sources

Industry has developed several different methods of making the gas. Heating carbon in the form of coke with a limited supply of oxygen forms carbon monoxide. In this process the product is called “producer gas”.

It can also be made by reacting water in the form of steam with carbon. The product of this reaction is called “water gas” or “synthesis gas”. Another method involves dehydrating methanoic (formic) acid with concentrated sulfuric acid.

Partial Combustion

Carbon monoxide is also formed unhelpfully whenever any organic fuel is burned in an enclosed space. This is because it is only being partially burned. Normally when a hydrocarbon fuel like coal or natural gas is burned the products of the reaction are water and carbon dioxide which contributes to climate change but it is not immediately damaging to our health. When there is a limit to the amount of oxygen available, for example in an unventilated room, the products of combustion of these fuels is carbon monoxide.

The Silent Killer

Carbon monoxide has been called “The Silent Killer” because it is a colourless, odourless gas which is deadly when breathed by humans. It is deadly because it binds to the haemoglobin in our bloodstream, preventing oxygen from binding to it. This effectively suffocates the victim, as the body no longer has access to oxygen from the air.

Suicide

When a person is exposed to carbon monoxide they begin to get flu-like symptoms and headaches. Then the central nervous system and heart begin to be affected and death follows. Many people have been overcome in their sleep because they have left a faulty heater on in an unventilated room. Others have used the effects of carbon monoxide as a suicide method, often using the carbon monoxide from a car's exhaust fumes.

The copyright of the article Carbon Monoxide: Useful but Deadly in Everyday Chemistry is owned by Simon Davies. Permission to republish Carbon Monoxide: Useful but Deadly in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.