It’s a gaseous ingredient important for all times, composing roughly 78% of the Earth’s environment by quantity. It’s represented by the image N and has an atomic variety of 7. The ingredient exists in nature primarily as a diatomic molecule, N2. A standard instance is its use in fertilizers to advertise plant progress, the place it’s transformed into usable kinds like ammonia.
This ingredient’s inert nature underneath customary situations makes it precious in numerous industrial purposes. It’s used as a coolant, in preserving meals merchandise by displacing oxygen, and in manufacturing explosives and different chemical compounds. Traditionally, its discovery is attributed to Daniel Rutherford in 1772, marking a major step in understanding the composition of air.