Is air a mixture or a coumpound?
mixture
A mixture of oxygen (about 78%), nitrogen (about 21%) with the remaining approximately 1% being CO2, moisture, neon, argon, helium, etc.
Air is a mixture rather than a compound. To understand why, let's break it down.
A mixture is formed when two or more substances are combined physically, but they do not chemically react with each other. Each substance in the mixture retains its own chemical properties and can be separated by physical means.
On the other hand, a compound is a substance that is formed when two or more elements chemically combine, resulting in a new substance with different properties from its individual components. Compounds have a fixed composition and can only be separated by chemical means.
In the case of air, it is a mixture of gases, primarily nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and traces of other gases. These gases are physically blended together without undergoing any chemical reactions. Each gas maintains its own properties, such as boiling points, densities, and reactivity. This is why we can separate the individual components of air by various physical methods, such as fractional distillation or filtration.
In summary, air is a mixture because it is composed of different gases that retain their individual properties and can be separated by physical means.