If carbon is a byproduct\end product of combustion, why exactly is coal so good at burning? Isn’t coal just pure carbon?
In: Chemistry
Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of complete combustion. It’s just often referred to as “carbon” when talking about pollution, or even the carbon cycle.
**Carbon dioxide** (CO2) is a product of combusion. It isn’t pure carbon, it’s a greenhouse gas. The term “carbon dioxide” is shortened to just “carbon” when talking about global warming.
**Soot** is a form of impure carbon that is a product of incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons (molecules composed mostly of carbon and hydrogen, such as paraffin, alcohol, kerosene, etc.).
Pure carbon that hasn’t yet reacted with anything can react (burn) in the presence of oxygen. Coal isn’t pure carbon either, however, it’s mostly carbon but it includes other compounds that burn (made mostly of hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen), often releasing pollutants when they react.
Nope! Coal is carbon bonded in chains with hydrogen and oxygen (and a few other, kinda problematic things like sulfur) when burned, the bonds keeping all that together are broken, creating water, carbon di/monoxide, and freeing whatever other chemicals were in the coal, like calcium and sulfur.
Carbon Dioxide is a byproduct of combustion, which forms when carbon-based compounds oxidize (burn).
Carbon (C) came come in different flavours. Pure carbon can burn. Burning means reacting with Oxygen (O). Carbon and Oxygen become CO2.
Pure carbon is not the end produce of combustion but CO2, which is sometimes incorrectly called Carbon in some cases.
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