Haber Process

Nitrogen, carbon and oxygen are 3 extremely important elements that control the growth of plants. Plants can absorb carbon through the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and can absorb oxygen through the water. But for nitrogen, it is not easy to obtain because the nitrogen in the atmosphere are unusable for plants even though 78% of atmosphere are nitrogen. The nitrogen in the atmosphere are triple bond molecule, the chemical bond between them are so strong that plants cannot break them.

Image from: Fritz_Haber.png

Until 20th century, the Germany chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch created a most efficient way to transfer the nitrogen in atmosphere to a useful version for plants.
N₂(g)+3H₂(g)à2NH₃(g) 

This reaction is called haber process, which still used to produce the fertilizer nowadays. The principle of this reaction is using Le Châtelier's Principle that I will talk next week. Basically, to produce more NH₃  we just need constantly put more N₂ and H₂ into reaction container and take off the NH₃  Because by adding reactants, it increases the concentration of N₂ and H₂. And by taking off NH₃, it reduces the concentration of NH₃. These 2 movements force the chemical equilibrium shift toward to right which is a direction that will create more NH₃.