Production
From a thermodynamic perspective, NO is unstable with respect to O2 and N2, although this conversion is very slow at ambient temperatures in the absence of a catalyst. Because the heat of formation of NO is endothermic, its synthesis from molecular nitrogen and oxygen requires elevated temperatures above 1000 °C.
A major natural source is lightning. The use of internal combustion engines has drastically increased the presence of nitric oxide in the environment. One purpose of catalytic converters in cars is to minimize NO emission by catalytic reversion to O2 and N2.
Read more about this topic: Nitric Oxide
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“Constant revolutionizing of production ... distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)