Oxygen,O

Properties

• Name: Oxygen
• Atomic Number: 8
• Chemical Symbol: O
• Electronic Configuration: [He]2s²2p⁴
• Abundance:
  • Earth: 4.74x10⁵ ppm
  • Solar System: 6.92x10⁸ (rel. to [H]=1x10¹²)
• Discovery : Priestley and Scheele (1774)
• Most Common Elementary Substance : O₂ and O₃
• Elementary Substance Class : Non-metal
• Origin : Natural
• Physical State : Gas
• Density [55K] : 2000 kg m^-3
• Price : ~ 0.3 USD
• Cristal Lattice : cubic
• Melting Point : 55 K
• Boiling Point : 90 K
• Thermal Conductivity [300K] : 0.2674 W m^-1K^-1
• Heat of:
  • Fusion: 0.444 kJ mol^-1
  • Vaporization: 6.82 kJ mol^-1
  • Atomization: 249 kJ mol^-1

Oxygen gas is colourless, odorless and tasteless. When in liqued or solid form it is a pale blue colour and is very paramagnetic.

Sources

Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the sun. It forms 21% of the atmoshere and about two thirds of the human body and nine tenths of water is oxygen. Oxygen can be obtained by fractional distillation and liquefaction.

Uses

All plants and animals require oxygen for respiration. It is a very reactive element and is a component of thousands of compounds. Ozone (O₃) formed by the action of ultraviolet light on oxygen protects the earth from the dangerous UV rays from the sun. Oxygen is used to make methanol and ethene oxide and is also used in steel manufacture.

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