Few Facts About Oxygen
| Product Attributes | |
| Atomic Number | 8 |
| Atomic Symbol | O |
| Atomic Weight | 15.9994 |
| Electron Configuration | [He]2s22p4 |
| Atomic Radius | 66 pm |
| Melting Point | -218.79° |
| Boiling Point | -182.95° |
| Oxidation States | -2 |
History
For many centuries, many people occasionally realized air was composed of more than one component. Actually, the behavior of nitrogen and oxygen gas as components of air led to the advancement of the phlogiston theory of combustion. This theory had captured the minds of lot of chemists for a century. Oxygen was prepared by several workers, including Bayen and Borch, but they did not know how to collect it. Also, they didn't studied its properties. Generally, Priestley is credited for its discovery of oxygen and its properties.
Sources
Oxygen, a gaseous element, forms 21% of the atmosphere by volume and is obtained by liquification and fractional distillation whereas the atmosphere of mars contains about 0.15% oxygen. The element and its compounds make up 49.2%, by weight, of the earth's crust. About two thirds of the human body and nine tenths of water is oxygen.
One can prepare oxygen in the laboratory by the electrolysis of water or by heating potassium chlorate with manganese dioxide as a catalyst.
Properties & Compounds
Oxygen is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. The liquid and solid forms of oxygen are a pale blue color and are strongly paramagnetic. It is very reactive and is a component of hundreds of thousands of organic compounds and combines with most elements.
Forms
Ozone (O3), a highly active compound is formed when there is an electrical discharge or ultraviolet light on oxygen.
The presence of ozone in the atmosphere (amounting to the equivalent of a layer 3 mm thick under ordinary pressures and temperatures) helps prevent harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun from touching the earth's surface. Pollutants in the atmosphere have a detrimental effect on this ozone layer. It is said that ozone is toxic and exposure should not exceed 0.2 mg/m# (8-hour time-weighted average -40-hour work week). Undiluted ozone is of bluish color. In fact, liquid ozone is bluish black and solid ozone is violet-black.
Isotopes
Oxygen has nine isotopes and natural oxygen is a mixture of three isotopes. Natural occurring oxygen-18 is stable and available commercially, as is water (H2O with 15% 18O).
Oxygen enrichment of steel blast furnaces accounts for the greatest use of this gas. It is also used in large quantities in making synthesis gas for ammonia and methanol, ethylene oxide, and also for oxy-acetylene welding.
In fact air separation plants produce about 99% of the gas, while electrolysis plants produce about 1% of oxygen.