Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen because carbon monoxide has a higher affinity for hemoglobin than oxygen does. This can be seen by comparing the equilibrium constants for the two reactions Hb(aq) + O_2(g) implies HbO_2(aq) K = 1.6 times 10^12 Hb(aq) + CO(g) implies HbCO(aq) K = 1.1 times 10^14 where Hb is hemoglobin. The actual reactions are more complicated since each hemoglobin can accept up to four oxygen molecules, but we will simplify it for this problem. A concentration of about 12, 500 parts per million of CO is considered highly lethal. This corresponds to a partial pressure of about 10 torr of CO (5.1 times 10^-4 M). The concentration of hemoglobin in our blood (on average and roughly) is about 9.4 times 10^-3 M. Using reaction 2 and assuming the reaction goes to completion (limiting reactant, anyone?), determine the concentration of hemoglobin, CO and HbCO after the reaction Use your results from part (a) as your initial values in an ICE table and calculate the equilibrium concentration of carbon monoxide in your blood after exposure to a lethal dose of CO. You should get a very small number. Use wolfram alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com) or another piece of software to solve your equations for you instead of using any approximate methods. If you breathe in pure oxygen, the partial pressure of oxygen is about the surrounding air pressure, or roughly 740 torr. However, by the time the oxygen mixes with your previous breath and the water in your lungs, the effective partial pressure of oxygen is lowered to about 500 torr which means a concentration of about 0.045M in your blood. Set up an ICE table using the initial concentrations of HbCO and CO from part (b), the initial concentration of O_2 of 0.045M and an initial concentration of HbO_2 of zero. Calculate the equilibrium concentration of HbO_2 when exposed to pure oxygen after carbon monoxide poisoning. Again, show the work to set up the equations and solve using Wolfram Alpha. In a healthy person, the concentration of HbO_2 in the arterial blood is about 8.9 times 10^-3M. If O_2 concentrations drop below about 80% of this a person will still have significant trouble breathing. Did this breathing treatment "cure" the patient?