Ball-and-stick models of the carbon dioxide molecule

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transparent to visible light but absorbs infrared radiation, acting as a greenhouse gas. It is a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere at 417 ppm by volume, having risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm. Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of these increased carbon dioxide concentrations and also the primary cause of global warming and climate change. Carbon dioxide is soluble in water and is found in groundwater, lakes, ice caps, and seawater. When carbon dioxide dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid, which causes ocean acidification as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase. The symmetry of a carbon dioxide molecule is linear and centrosymmetric at its equilibrium geometry. The length of the carbon-oxygen bond in carbon dioxide is 116.3 picometers, noticeably shorter than the roughly 140 picometers length of a typical single carbon-oxygen bond, and shorter than most other carbon-oxygen multiply-bonded functional groups such as carbonyls. Since it is centrosymmetric, the molecule has no electric dipole moment. Contributor: Junjie Chen, ORCID: 0000-0001-5055-4309, E-mail address: [e-mail], Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, 2000 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo, Henan, 454000, P.R. China