OXYGEN

Basic Information
Name: Oxygen Symbol: O Atomic Number: 8 Atomic Mass: 15.9994 amu Melting Point: -218.4 C (54.750008 K, -361.12 F) Boiling Point: -183.0 C (90.15 K, -297.4 F) Number of Protons/Electrons: 8 Number of Neutrons: 8 Classification: Non-metal Crystal Structure: Cubic Density @ 293 K: 1.429 g/cm3 Color: colorless Atomic Structure Number of Energy Levels:2 First Energy Level: 2 Second Energy Level: 6

Isotopes Isotope O-15 O-16 O-17 O-18 Facts Half Life 122.2 seconds Stable Stable Stable

Date of Discovery: 1774 Discoverer: Joseph Priestly Name Origin: From the Greek words oxus (acid) and gennan (generate) Uses: supports life Obtained From: from liquid a The melting point of Oxygen is -218.4 C

Here are 10 interesting facts about the element oxygen. You can find more oxygen facts on the element's periodic table facts page. Animals and plants require oxygen for respiration. Oxygen gas is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Liquid and solid oxygen are pale blue. Oxygen is a non-metal. Description of the oxygen concentration delivered using different combinations of oxygen reservoir volumes and supplemental oxygen flow rates with the Ohmeda Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete draw-over vaporizer system. Fritz LA, Kay JK, Garrett N. Source U.S. Army Graduate Program in Anesthesia Nursing, Phase II Site, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, 5005 North Piedras Street, Stop 58, El Paso, TX 79920, USA. Abstract The Ohmeda Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete system is used in austere conditions where oxygen resources are limited and must be conserved. The purpose of this study was to describe the concentration of oxygen delivered with different combinations of seven oxygen reservoir volumes and four oxygen flow rates. The Medical Education Technologies Incorporated Human Patient Simulator reproduced human physiological tidal volumes of four simulated patients of different weights based upon a typical soldier's weight. Using least squares multiple nonlinear regression, a formula for the curves of the oxygen concentrations was developed. The analysis, across the different patient weights, showed no appreciable increase in oxygen concentration beyond a reservoir volume of 260 mL. Our findings suggest the current standard universal portable anesthesia complete reservoir may not provide optimal oxygen delivery, therefore, we recommend the current reservoir volume be increased from 130 to 260 mL.

Oxygen & the Human Body As we all know, oxygen is the most essential element for the bodys survival. But the manner in which oxygen is absorbed, transported and utilised by the body remains a mystery to many of us. Some medical professionals have undertaken indepth study of oxygen and the human body, and have concluded that the absence of adequate levels of oxygen in human cells and tissue is linked to a huge proportion of common health problems. Dr. Stephen Levine is a renowned molecular biologist. In his book "Oxygen Deficiency: A Concomitant to All Degenerative Illness", he stated that:In all serious disease states we find a concomitant low oxygen state... Low oxygen in the body tissues is a sure indicator for disease... Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in the tissues, is the fundamental cause for all degenerative disease." Dr. Otto Warburg was Director of the Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology in Germany and a Two-time Nobel Laureate Winner of the Nobel Prize For Cancer Research. In his book The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer he wrote: Cancer ........ has only one prime cause, the replacement of normal oxygen respiration of the body's cells by an anaerobic (i.e. oxygen-deficient) cell respiration." It is believed that the exercise and massage effects enjoyed during use of the Surge of Chi Exerciser can stimulate the bodys systems to absorb higher levels of oxygen. This was apparently the main objective of the Japanese inventor of the original Chi Machine that was the forerunner of the Surge of Chi Exerciser. He devoted much of his career to studying the effects of improved oxygenation on our health. Oxygen is needed to maintain a healthy environment for all cellular activity. Lack of exercise, stress and sedentary lifestyles contribute to chronically low levels of oxygen in our cells. Even lack of fresh food and water have been linked to reduced oxygen intake by the human body. Bacteria, viruses, parasites and malignant tumors all thrive in an oxygendepleted environment. Low oxygen levels leave us feeling tired and depleted.A common factor in asthma, emphysema, bronchitis and other respiratory system disorders is an inadequate supply of oxygen to the blood. Our lungs will deteriorate between 9% and 25% every 10 years (Framingham study) unless we do something to maintain them. Exercise is

the bodys mainstay for achieving this self-maintenance requirement. However, excessive stress during exercise can actually cause breathing blocks, which can lead to inadequate levels of oxygen.The Surge of Chi Exerciser allows us to enjoy a balanced and stress-free form of exercise in which deeper breathing is induced and the supply of oxygen is increased both to the respiratory system and at cell level. In what ways is oxygenation important? These are just some of the problems we can suffer if adequate levels of oxygen are not being provided in the body when and where it is needed: poor physical endurancepoor ability to deal with stresssusceptibility to colds and flupoor sleepsusceptibility to allergiescardiac problemscancer cells only grow where oxygen levels are lowweight problemsasthma and other breathing difficultiesstiffness & pain in back & shouldersindigestionconstipation Hydrogen and oxygen both have 3 stable isotopes. Thus, either of the two protons can be one of three possible types, which, despite my hungover state, I believe I have worked out to represent 6 possible arrangements of isotopes of hydrogen on the molecule. For each of these states, there can be three oxygen isotopes, so 6 x 3 = 18 possible combinations of isotopes in total The Reactions with Air or Oxygen General These are all very reactive metals and have to be stored out of contact with air to prevent their oxidation. Reactivity increases as you go down the Group. Lithium, sodium and potassium are stored in oil. (Lithium in fact floats on the oil, but there will be enough oil coating it to give it some protection. It is, anyway, less reactive than the rest of the Group.) Rubidium and caesium are normally stored in sealed glass tubes to prevent air getting at them. They are stored either in a vacuum or in an inert atmosphere of, say, argon. The tubes are broken open when the metal is used. Depending on how far down the Group you are, different kinds of oxide are formed when the metals burn (details below). Reaction with oxygen is just a more dramatic version of the

reaction with air. Lithium is unique in the Group because it also reacts with the nitrogen in the air to form lithium nitride (again, see below).

Details for the individual metals Lithium Lithium burns with a strongly red-tinged flame if heated in air. It reacts with oxygen in the air to give white lithium oxide. With pure oxygen, the flame would simply be more intense.

For the record, it also reacts with the nitrogen in the air to give lithium nitride. Lithium is the only element in this Group to form a nitride in this way. Sodium Small pieces of sodium burn in air with often little more than an orange glow. Using larger amounts of sodium or burning it in oxygen gives a strong orange flame. You get a white solid mixture of sodium oxide and sodium peroxide. The equation for the formation of the simple oxide is just like the lithium one.

The peroxide equation is:

Potassium Small pieces of potassium heated in air tend to just melt and turn instantly into a mixture of potassium peroxide and potassium superoxide without any flame being seen. Larger pieces of potassium burn with a lilac flame. The equation for the formation of the peroxide is just like the

sodium one above:

. . . and for the superoxide:

Note: Potassium peroxide and superoxide are described as being somewhere between yellow and orange depending on what source you look at. I have a bit of a problem with this, because over my teaching career I have heated potassium in air many times and, if memory serves correctly, it always leaves a greyish white film on the bit of porcelain you are heating it on. I don't recall ever seeing it yellow or orange! The formula for a peroxide doesn't look too stange, because most people are familiar with the similar formula for hydrogen peroxide. The formula for a superoxide always looks wrong! There is more about these oxides later on.

Rubidium and caesium Both metals catch fire in air and produce superoxides, RbO2 and CsO2. The equations are the same as the equivalent potassium one.

Note: In a lifetime in teaching chemistry, I have never actually handled (or even seen in real life!) either of these metals. I haven't even seen video or film clips of them being burnt. That means that I don't have much confidence in this

next bit.

Both superoxides are described in most sources as being either orange or yellow. One major web source describes rubidium superoxide as being dark brown on one page and orange on another! I don't know what the flames look like either. You can't necessarily be sure that the flame that a metal burns with will be the same as the flame colour of its compounds.

Why are different oxides formed as you go down the Group? Lithium (and to some extent sodium) form simple oxides, X2O, which contain the common O2- ion. Sodium (and to some extent potassium) form peroxides, X2O2, containing the more complicated O22- ion (discussed below). Potassium, rubidium and caesium form superoxides, XO2. The structure of the superoxide ion, O2-, is too difficult to discuss at this level, needing a good knowledge of molecular orbital theory to make sense of it. The more complicated ions aren't stable in the presence of a small positive ion. Consider the peroxide ion, for example. The peroxide ion, O22- looks like this:

The covalent bond between the two oxygen atoms is relatively weak. Now imagine bringing a small positive ion close to the peroxide ion. Electrons in the peroxide ion will be strongly attracted towards the positive ion. This is then well on the way to forming a simple oxide ion if the right-hand oxygen atom (as drawn below) breaks off.

We say that the positive ion polarises the negative ion. This works best if the positive ion is small and highly charged - if it has a high charge density.

Note: A high charge density simply means that you have a lot of charge packed into a small volume.

Even though it only has one charge, the lithium ion at the top of the Group is so small and has such a high charge density that any peroxide ion near it falls to pieces to give an oxide and oxygen. As you go down the Group to sodium and potassium the positive ions get bigger and they don't have so much effect on the peroxide ion. The superoxide ions are even more easily pulled apart, and these are only stable in the presence of the big ions towards the bottom of the Group. So why do any of the metals form the more complicated oxides? It is a matter of energetics. In the presence of sufficient oxygen, they produce the compound whose formation gives out most energy. That gives the most stable compound. The amount of heat evolved per mole of rubidium in forming its various oxides is: enthalpy change (kJ / mol of Rb)Rb2O-169.5Rb2O2-236RbO2278.7

Note: These figures are based on a thermodynamic properties table from Gazi University in Turkey. It was the only place I could track down a value for the enthalpy of formation of rubidium superoxide. The enthalpy of formation values for rubidium oxide and peroxide have been divided by two to give results per mole of rubidium in order to make them comparable with the superoxide value.

The values for the various potassium oxides show exactly the same trends. As long as you have enough oxygen, forming the peroxide releases more energy per mole of metal than forming the simple oxide. Forming the superoxide releases even more. I assume the same thing to be true of the caesium oxides, although I couldn't find all the figures to be able to check it.

Summary Forming the more complicated oxides from the metals releases more energy and makes the system more energetically stable. BUT . . . this only works for the metals in the lower half of the Group where the metal ions are big and have a low charge density. At the top of the Group, the small ions with a higher charge density tend to polarise the more complicated oxide ions to the point of destruction.

Reactions of the Oxides The simple oxides, X2O Reaction with water These are simple basic oxides, reacting with water to give the metal hydroxide. For example, lithium oxide reacts with water to give a

colourless solution of lithium hydroxide.

Note: I'm going to use "X" for all the rest of the equations in this section. There is no difference between the equations for the various elements in the Group whichever metal oxide (or peroxide or superoxide) you are using.

Reaction with dilute acids These simple oxides all react with an acid to give a salt and water. For example, sodium oxide will react with dilute hydrochloric acid to give colourless sodium chloride solution and water.

The peroxides, X2O2 Reaction with water If the reaction is done ice cold (and the temperature controlled so that it doesn't rise even though these reactions are strongly exothermic), a solution of the metal hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide is formed. If the temperature increases (as it inevitably will unless the peroxide is added to water very, very, very slowly!), the hydrogen peroxide produced decomposes into water and oxygen. The reaction can be very violent overall.

Reaction with dilute acids These reactions are even more exothermic than the ones with

water. A solution containing a salt and hydrogen peroxide is formed. The hydrogen peroxide will decompose to give water and oxygen if the temperature rises - again, it is almost impossible to avoid this. Another potentially violent reaction!

The superoxides, XO2 Reaction with water This time, a solution of the metal hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide is formed, but oxygen gas is given off as well. Once again, these are strongly exothermic reactions and the heat produced will inevitably decompose the hydrogen peroxide to water and more oxygen. Again violent!

Reaction with dilute acids Again, these reactions are even more exothermic than the ones with water. A solution containing a salt and hydrogen peroxide is formed together with oxygen gas. The hydrogen peroxide will again decompose to give water and oxygen as the temperature rises. Violent!

The Reactions of the elements with Chlorine This is included on this page because of the similarity in appearance between the reactions of the Group 1 metals with chlorine and with oxygen. Sodium, for example, burns with an intense orange flame in chlorine in exactly the same way that it does in pure oxygen. The rest also behave the same in both gases. In each case, there is a white solid residue which is the simple chloride, XCl. There is nothing in any way complicated about these reactions!

The human body is about two-thirds oxygen Oxygen's influence and its role in Human Body In the human body, the oxygen is absorbed by the blood stream in the lungs, being then transported to the cells where an elaborated change process takes place. Oxygen plays a vital role in the breathing processes and in the metabolism of the living organisms. Probably, the only living cells that do not need oxygen are some anaerobic bacteria that obtain energy from other metabolic processes. The nutrient compounds, inside of the cell, are oxidized through complex enzymatic processes. This oxidation is the source of energy of most of the animals, mainly of mammals. The products are carbon dioxide and water (exhaled air has a relative humidity of 100%), which are eliminated by the human body through the lungs.

Oxygen can exist in a number of physical forms. Most commonly it is found as a diatomic O-O gas and is called molecular oxygen (O2) or dioxygen. The gas exists as a triplet state but the singlet oxygen can also be formed and is more reactive. This gas can be liquefied at low temperatures to produce a blue liquid oxygen (LOX) and cooled further produces a blue solid. After electrical discharge or photolysis Oxygen may also form the triatomic ozone (O3) and under very extreme conditions atomic oxygen (O) is produced.

Molecular Oxygen (O2) is a colourless, odorless and tasteless gas. It is denser than air and is only slightly soluble in water. It is a poor conductor of heat and readily supports

combustion. Normal atmospheric oxygen (O2) is diatomic with a molecular weight of 31.9988. Oxygen is only slightly soluble in aqueous solution, dissolving to about 0.04 g/L at 25C. Molecular oxygen is also special in that it exists as a triplet ground state with two unpaired electrons (biradical).

When cooled below its boiling point (-183C) O2 becomes a pale blue liquid (LOX); when cooled still further the liquid solidifies, retaining its colour (ozone is also blue). The blue colour is due to the electronic properties of O2 which also impart its paramagnetic properties. Three stable isotopes of oxygen exist with mass numbers 16, 17, and 18. Liquid oxygen is also potentially hazardous about flames and sparks as it will greatly accelerate combustion. Oxygen is most commonly reacted as an oxide forming dihydrogen oxide: H2O (i.e. water). The formation of water is a thermodynamic endpoint (no further reactions proceed) and water has accumulated on the planet in vast quantities. The water-oxygen geochemical cycle is one of the most important cycles for life on this planet. Other oxides are found in the earth along with silicates and make up about 45% of the earths crust. Ozone gas (O3) is often generated as an undesirable pollutant in smog and industrial emissions. It is also produced for sterilisation and for cleaning and detoxification purposes and is s a "green" alternative to chlorine. Ozone in the atmosphere is a critical component for filtering damaging UV radiation. Pure ozone gas is a bluish colour. At low temperatures (111.9C) liquid ozone forms as a blue-black liquid and if generated is a potentially explosive and unstable oxidant. At lower temperatures (-193C) the solid ozone is formed as a bluish-black solid. Name: Oxygen Type: Non-Metal, Chalcogen Density @ 293 K: 0.001429 g/cm
symbol: O

Atomic weight: 15.9994

Atomic volume: 14.0 cm3/mol Discovery of Oxygen Oxygen was discovered in 1774 by Joseph Priestley in England and two years earlier, but unpublished, by Carl W. Scheele in Sweden. Scheele heated several compounds including potassium nitrate, manganese oxide, and mercury oxide and found they released a gas which enhanced combustion. Priestley heated mercury oxide and found it yielded a gas that made a candle burn five times faster than normal. He wrote: "But what surprised me more than I can well express was that a candle burned in this air with a remarkably vigourous flame. I was utterly at a loss how to account for it." (1) In addition to noticing the effect of oxygen on combustion, Priestley later noted the new gas's biological role. He placed a mouse in a jar of oxygen, expecting it would survive for 15 minutes maximum before it suffocated. Instead, the mouse survived for a whole hour and was none the worse for it.(2) Antoine Lavoisier carried out similar experiments to Priestley's and added to our knowledge by discovering that air contains about 20 percent oxygen and that when any substance burns, it actually combines chemically with oxygen. It was Lavoisier who first gave the element its name oxygen.
(2a)

The word oxygen is derived from the Greek words 'oxys' meaning acid and 'genes' meaning forming. Before it was discovered and isolated, a number of scientists had recognized the existence of a substance with the properties of oxygen: In the early 1500s Leonardo da Vinci observed that a fraction of air is consumed in respiration and combustion.(3) In 1665 Robert Hooke noted that air contains a substance which is present in potassium nitrate [potassium nitrate

releases oxygen when heated,] and a larger quantity of an unreactive substance [which we call nitrogen].(3) In 1668 John Mayow wrote that air contains the gas oxygen [he called it nitroarial spirit], which is consumed in respiration and burning.(3),(4) Mayow observed that: substances do not burn in air from which oxygen is absent; oxygen is present in the acid part of potassium nitrate [i.e., in the nitrate - he was right!]; animals absorb oxygen into their blood when they breathe; air breathed out by animals has less oxygen in it than fresh air. Health effects of oxygen Oxygen is essential for all forms of life since it is a constituent of DNA and almost all other biologically important compounds. Is it even more drammatically essential, in that animals must have minute by minute supply of the gas in order to survive. Oxygen in the lungs is picked up by the iron atom at the center of hemoglobin in the blood and thereby transported to where it is needed. Every human being needs oxygen to breathe, but as in so many cases too much is not good. If one is exposed to large amounts of oxygen for a long time, lung damage can occur. Breathing 50-100% oxygen at normal pressure over a prolonged period causes lung damage. Those people who work with frequent or potentially high exposures to pure oxygen, should take lung function tests before beginning employment and after that. Oxygen is usually stored under very low temperatures and therefore one should wear special clothes to prevent the freezing of body tissues. The deep-sea divers working on the sunken British submarine Thetis were a scientific problem to famed Biologist J.B.S. Haldane. One day, early in World War II, Briton Haldane impetuously clapped on an oxygen mask and, breathing pure oxygen (to study its effects), "dived" in a pressure chamber to a depth of seven atmospheric pressures (200 feet). The experiment nearly killed the experimenter, but it proved to him that oxygen, under pressure, is a violent poison. Inspired in part by Haldane's dive, the British Navy launched a full-dress study of oxygen poisoning, now reported in the British Medical Journal. Oxygen is essential to life, but it appears that the human body can stand just so much of it (not so much as biologists once supposed). The British Navy

concludes that breathing pure oxygen under more than two atmospheres of pressure (or an oxygen dive of more than 25 feet under sea water) is dangerous. Nervous Knockout. Deep-sea divers generally have been fed pure oxygen and helium, pumped to a pressure matching the depth of their dive. Divers sometimes unaccountably passed out during relatively shallow dives (up to four atmospheres of pressure used to be considered safe). The British study, involving some 2,000 tests, proved that oxygen, forced into the tissues under pressure, somehow intoxicates the central nervous system and poisons the brain cortex. (Whales, biologists have observed, bypass the whole oxygen problem by collapsing their lungs during deep dives.) Flashes of Light. With oxygen poisoning, the victim grows pale, feels as if he were choking, has attacks of nausea, is alternately exhilarated or depressed, has hallucinations (flashes of light, halos around everything, sounds as of bells and knocking). Finally his lips begin to twitch violently (the most common symptom); he goes into convulsions and falls unconscious. The final symptoms are much like those of an epileptic fit. But the victim quickly revives on breathing fresh air and, except for an oxygen jag lasting about an hour, shows no bad aftereffects.* Dr. Kenneth W. Donald, the British Navy's chief oxygen investigator, admits that he and his associates found the whole phenomenon highly mystifying. Their subjects (all volunteers) varied enormously in resistance to oxygen poisoning; and each individual varied greatly from day to day. One man was poisoned in seven minutes one day, resisted the same dose for nearly 2 hours another day. For some unknown reason, people are more vulnerable to oxygen poisoning under water than under the same pressure in a pressure chamber. And at a pressure of one atmosphere or less (as in high-altitude flight), human beings apparently can breathe pure oxygen indefinitely without harm. *To avoid the bends (caused by nitrogen bubbles in the blood), high-altitude flyers during the war usually breathed pure oxygen, or a mixture of oxygen and helium, for an hour or more before taking off. But they suffered no ill effects because they breathed it at ground level atmospheric pressure.