Chemical Reactions By Performance Enhancers And Catalytic Converters

This essay will explore different types of chemical reactions by performance enhancers (focusing on N2O) and catalytic converters and how these reactions have helped in the development of greater efficiency within cars. This essay will also describe and analyze the environmental impact it has.

Performance enhancers are used by car enthusiasts all over the world to increase the rate of combustion within a car, which increases the speed of the car. Nitrous oxide is emitted when fuels are burned. Cars that have modified engines are the primary source of N2O emissions. The amount of N2O emitted from transportation depends on the type of fuel and vehicle technology (catalytic converters) and the use of the car. The process of combustion releases

Humphry Davy named it. It was first used in German fighter jets in WWII. They used N20, because, the planes flew at such a height that there would be a lack of oxygen, so NOS or N2O was mixed in with the petrol to give it additional oxygen so that combustion would still take place at such high altitudes. It is widely used in motorsport. Nitrous Oxide is illegal because it increases the cars power, which means that the engine will produce so much power that the car might crash. One huge disadvantage of using Nitrous is that it significantly increases the power of the car, taking it to such an extent that even the engine may be destroyed due to overheating. Ever since the introduction of NOS to use commercially, there has been a steep increase in the number of car accidents that take place. What a lot of racers do is that they will mix the petrol and the nitrous together so that the NOS solution is stronger, how this works is that there are two pipes that eventually meet up in the main engine bay. One pipe is connected to the petrol tank and the other is connected to the nitrous tank. What happens here is that, when the driver turns on the switch for nitrous, he increases Cars that commonly use these are mainly Japanese cars that don’t have a lot of complex electronic components and that are easy to modify. Using it damage’s the ozone layer, by making it very thin. This occurs when pollutants are mixed in large quantities with carbon

The converter has two catalysts within it, a reduction catalyst and an oxidation catalyst. Both are made of a ceramic structure coated with a metal catalyst, usually platinum, rhodium or palladium. The aim is to create a structure that exposes the maximum surface area of the catalyst with minimal amount of it required, as the materials are expensive. Some of the converters have even started to use gold mixed with the catalysts. Gold is cheaper than the others and could increase oxidation­ that reduces pollutants, by up to 40 percent. The first stage is the reduction stage. It uses platinum and rhodium to help reduce the pollutant emissions. When a NO2 molecule contacts the catalyst, the catalyst removes the nitrogen atom out of the molecule and holds on to it, letting go of the oxygen in the form of O2. The nitrogen atoms bond with other nitrogen atoms that are also stuck to the catalyst, forming