|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| The discovery
of Oxygen is generally attributed to Joseph Priestley in 1774 although
Scheele made the same discovery at a similar time but failed to register
his findings. Lavoisier’s name is often associated with the
discovery of oxygen but his work followed on from that of Priestley
by identifying oxygen as an element and by further developing the
modern theory of combustion. Lavoisier also named oxygen (acid former).
The connection between oxygen, hydrogen and water was made by Cavendish
in 1781. Oxygen is a colourless, tasteless, odourless and highly reactive paramagnetic gas and whilst not flammable itself actively supports combustion. It is paramagnetic in the liquid state with a faint blue colour. It readily combines with other elements to forms oxides, the most common of which is water. It is vital for life and its solubility in water enables marine life to exist. It is the most abundant element in the earth’s crust (49.2% by weight) and makes up about 21% of atmospheric air by volume. |
Massive amounts of oxygen
are produced every year by fractional distillation of air, a very
significant portion of which is used in steel making. About 1 tonne
of oxygen is needed to make 1 tonne of steel. Oxygen has three stable isotopes but only 16O is in abundance. It also has O3, Ozone, as an unstable isotope. Oxygen reacts vigorously with oil and grease under appropriate conditions and no contact between the two should be permitted. |
 |
|