Iodine may slow ozone layer recovery
A new paper quantifying small levels of iodine in Earth's stratosphere could help explain why some of the planet's protective ozone layer isn't healing as fast as expected.
A new paper quantifying small levels of iodine in Earth's stratosphere could help explain why some of the planet's protective ozone layer isn't healing as fast as expected.
Earth Sciences
Jan 13, 2020
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When scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory focused the full intensity of the world's most powerful X-ray laser on a small molecule, they got a surprise: A single laser pulse stripped ...
General Physics
May 31, 2017
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3160
Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences, collaborating with PerkinElmer and UCL (University College London), have witnessed atoms of one chemical element morph into another for the first time ever—a feat ...
Materials Science
Jun 15, 2015
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Research by a team of Sandia chemists could impact worldwide efforts to produce clean, safe nuclear energy and reduce radioactive waste.
Materials Science
Jan 24, 2012
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Atmospheric aerosol particles exert a strong net cooling effect on the climate by making clouds brighter and more extensive, reflecting more sunlight back out to space. However, how aerosol particles form in the atmosphere ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2023
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In a world increasingly concerned about the environmental and geopolitical implications of fossil fuel usage, nuclear energy has resurfaced as a subject of great interest. Its ability to generate electricity at scale without ...
Materials Science
Jul 19, 2023
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An international team led by CU Boulder researchers has cracked the chemical code driving the formation of iodine particles in the atmosphere, revealing how the element contributes to increased cloud cover and depletes molecules ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 14, 2022
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The natural cycles of exchange of substances between the biosphere and the atmosphere are of major relevance to the Earth's climatic system. Perhaps the best-known example of this is the carbon cycle that involves the transfer ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 2, 2022
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Atoms bind together by sharing electrons. The way this happens depends on the atom types but also on conditions such as temperature and pressure. In two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene, atoms join along a plane ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 20, 2022
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3685
When winds loft fine desert dust high into the atmosphere, iodine in that dust can trigger chemical reactions that destroy some air pollution, but also let greenhouse gases stick around longer. The finding, published today ...
Environment
Dec 22, 2021
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Iodine (pronounced /ˈaɪ.ədaɪn/, /ˈaɪ.ədɨn/, or in chemistry /ˈaɪ.ədiːn/; from Greek: ιώδης iodes "violet"), is a chemical element that has the symbol I and atomic number 53. Naturally-occurring iodine is a single isotope with 74 neutrons.
Chemically, iodine is the second least reactive of the halogens, and the second most electropositive halogen; trailing behind astatine in both of these categories. However, the element does not occur in the free state in nature. As with all other halogens (members of Group XVII in the periodic table), when freed from its compounds iodine forms diatomic molecules (I2).
Iodine and its compounds are primarily used in medicine, photography, and dyes. Although it is rare in the solar system and Earth's crust, the iodides are very soluble in water, and the element is concentrated in seawater. This mechanism helps to explain how the element came to be required in trace amounts by all animals and some plants, being the heaviest element commonly used by living organisms (only tungsten, used in enzymes by a few bacteria, is heavier).
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