What are the uses of carbon monoxide?
1. Chemical industry
In the chemical industry, carbon monoxide is the basis of single carbon chemistry. Carbon monoxide is a major component of synthesis gases and various gases and is an important raw material for the synthesis of a range of basic organic chemicals and intermediates.
From carbon monoxide, almost all basic chemicals such as ammonia, phosgene, alcohols, acids,esters, amines can be prepared. Also, the properties of the carbonyl complex metals formed by the reaction of carbon monoxide with transition metals can be used to produce a variety of homogeneous reaction catalysts for organic chemical production. In addition, carbon monoxide can be used as a terminator for the polymerisation of polyethylene.
2. Metallurgy
In the metallurgical industry, carbon monoxide is used to extract high purity nickel from raw materials, to produce high purity powdered metals and to produce some high purity metal films through the thermal decomposition reaction of carbonyl metals.
Also, carbon monoxide is used as a reducing agent in metal refining, for example for the reduction of iron oxides in steel blast furnaces. In the production of polycrystalline diamond films, carbon monoxide of scientific quality (≥99.99%) can be used as a carbon source for chemical vapour deposition processes. In addition, mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen can be used to produce some special steels.
3. Other aspects
In addition to its applications in the chemical and metallurgical industries, carbon monoxide is also used as a fuel. High purity carbon monoxide is mainly used in standard gases, carbon monoxide lasers, environmental monitoring and research. Amongst others, carbon monoxide standard gases can be used for calibration and testing of petrochemical process control instruments, petrochemical product quality control, environmental pollution testing, automotive exhaust gas testing, mine alarm calibration, various factory exhaust gas testing, medical device calibration, etc., transformer oil quality testing in power systems, air separation product quality control, road safety testing instrument calibration, geological exploration and seismic monitoring, metallurgical analysis, gas equipment experiment and calorific value analysis, fertilizer industry instrument calibration, etc.
In addition, carbon monoxide is commonly used to store fish, meat, fruit and vegetables and bags of rice, especially raw fish. It is also used as a colour fixing agent as it can turn meat red.
As carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, carbon monoxide detectors in industrial processes is an essential device to ensure the safety of the production environment and staff.
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