As I understand it, the atmosphere is like a big container, and overall it contains like 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, etc. But obviously some small portion might contain a bunch of other stuff like if you’ve got a fire burning you get smoke, which is a bunch of other gases plus solid particulate matter. But over time that smoke kinda dissipates. Is that the gases of the smoke *dissolving* into the greater atmosphere?
In: Chemistry
Gaseous molecules have energy which makes them statistically average to spread evenly throughout the volume into which it is expanding. Solids that are dissolving are being surrounded as stated previously by the molecules of the liquid, whose attraction is based on net electric charge.
So, gas expansion is a function of the energy of the gaseous molecules (amongst other things). Solid dissolution is a function of electrical charge (better termed polarity, but same concept).
Dissolving in a solute is the polar attraction of the weakly positive and negative charges on hydrogen and oxygen in water to the full negative and positive charges in an ionic lattice such that of sodium and chloride in salt. The attraction between water and sodium or chloride causes the lattice in which it is to fall apart and dissolve. A gas being released into the atmosphere isn’t dissolving as the gas is still separate and not contained within a larger structure such as carbon dioxide dissolved in water.
Gasses in the atmosphere are a mixture not a dissolved substance
The mechanism is rather different, but iirc it can still be called “dissolving”. What’s really happening is that the gases merely coexist in the same space.
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