Carbon monoxide also binds to haemoglobin, and it sticks over 200 times stronger than oxygen. Normally haemoglobin in your blood binds oxygen as it passes through your lungs and then releases it where it is needed in the various organs of your body.
This reactivity is the root of its poisonous nature.Ĭarbon monoxide poisoning results from the way it interacts with proteins that carry oxygen around your body. As a result the carbon is still able to react with other molecules. It is a very stable molecule because the carbon atom has fully reacted with the oxygens, leaving it with no potential to form bonds with anything else.Ĭarbon monoxide consists of a carbon and a single oxygen (hence the “mono” in the name and the formula CO). The difference between the two gases is small but very significant.Ĭarbon dioxide has a central carbon atom flanked by two oxygens, hence the “di” (meaning two) in the name, and the chemical formula CO₂. Unlike its chemical cousin, though, carbon monoxide is extremely poisonous. This too is invisible, tasteless and odourless. We can’t see or smell carbon dioxide – it’s non-toxic and is unreactive – so most of the time as it drifts away into the air around us and we don’t give it a moment’s thought.īut carbon dioxide isn’t the only gas that results from burning of fuels. This is produced when the carbon, locked away in the petrol, gas or wood, reacts with oxygen in the air. The reaction produces heat which we harness to warm our homes, heat water and cook food, power vehicles and generate electricity.Ĭombustion also produces gases, most obviously carbon dioxide. Many of us are familiar with the typical results of burning fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. Mark Lorch, Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry explains what carbon monoxide is and how you can keep safe.
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