Properties of Oxygen

Oxygen is one of the most important and basic elements found in the earth’s atmosphere. All living animals need oxygen in the air to survive. Without oxygen, there would be no trace of life on earth. Apart from being one of the basic elements on earth for a living being to survive, it was important in a lot of other areas as well. Oxygen is used in medical applications, commercial and industrial practices all over the world. Based on the guide to different physical and chemical properties of oxygen, it can be used in different areas.

Physical properties of oxygen

The physical properties of oxygen are as follows;

• Oxygen is a colorless gas.
• It is an odorless gas.
• Oxygen does not have any taste.
• Oxygen has a higher density than air.
• Oxygen is a very poor conductor of heat and electricity.
• Oxygen is soluble in some liquids such as water, alcohol, etc. (solutes slightly).

Chemical properties of oxygen

The chemical properties of oxygen are as follows;

• Oxygen does not burn itself but fire needs oxygen to keep burning i.e., it supports combustion.
• Oxygen can be in multiple types of compounds. The compounds include iron ore, water, carbon-di-oxide, etc.
• When it unites with other substances, it is known as the oxidation process.
• Oxygen is a very strong oxidizing agent.
• Reactivity- Oxygen can be produced by the process of action of UV (ultraviolet) radiation on oxygen in the stratosphere (a specific layer of the earth’s atmosphere) and by the electric discharge in oxygen as well.

Industrial Methods of Preparing Oxygen

Many years ago, it was discovered that it is possible to produce oxygen industrially by multiple types of cryogenic distillation processes. The oxygen that is up to 99 percent pure can be made in a laboratory these days. In recent times, the method of vacuum swing absorption has been used a lot. The produced oxygen can be up to 90-93 percent pure and thus, can be used in specific applications only. 

Among other methods, it can also be produced by freeing oxygen from a chemical compound in the form of pure gas. It must be noted that this method is used in the medical industries, aircraft, spacecraft, submarines, etc. as this method cannot make a huge quantity of oxygen per batch.

Conclusion

Oxygen is one of the most important and basic elements found in the earth’s atmosphere. All living animals need oxygen in the air to survive. Without oxygen, there would be no trace of life on earth. Over the years, scientists have discovered multiple ways of preparing it in laboratories and also identified other diverse uses of this gas. Oxygen has its own distinct physical and chemical properties and thus, according to those characteristics, it is used accordingly in different industries and purposes. Oxygen is used in medical applications, commercial, and industrial practices. There are a lot of different methods of preparing oxygen and different methods may have different purity rates of the concerned gas.