Magnesium Burns in Carbon Dioxide – part of our “Berzelius Day” uploading 24 videos in 24 hours. Full video containing this reaction at:
NOTE FROM THE PROFESSOR: The Mg effectively extracts the oxygen from CO2. 2Mg + CO2 → 2MgO + 2C. Solid CO2 and MgO are both white but elemental Carbon is black. The reason why the reaction is so violent is that solid CO2 contains molecules of CO2 which interact weakly while solid MgO is made up of Mg(2+) and O(2-) ions which because of their charges interact very strongly giving out large amounts of energy as the solid MgO is formed.
See our 24 reactions playlist as it unfolds at:
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From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham:
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran
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