The element first appeared 2 billion years ago when photosynthesis of cyanobacteria resulted in a buildup of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere Oxygen Molecular Orbital Diagram Biological Role of Oxygen For deep-sea diving, oxygen is diluted with other gases like helium or nitrogen for preventing oxygen toxicity. Astronauts, submariners, and scuba divers rely on artificially-delivered oxygen.Rocket fuel has high oxygen content for increasing the burning rate.It is used in pediatric incubators in hospitals to help provide newborn babies the environmental safety they need when they are born prematurely.Compressed oxygen gas is used in pneumatic tools, including riveters, drills, and paint sprayers.It is now increasingly used for treating sewage and industrial effluent.The oxy-acetylene flame used in welding or cutting metals contains oxygen gas.It can be used for making polyester and chloroethane, which is a precursor to PVC.Epoxyethane, a chemical used for producing antifreeze (chemicals added to water in automobile engines) is manufactured from oxygen. Large amounts of oxygen are used to manufacture various chemicals like hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid.Oxygen gas is commercially used in the steel industry for removing undesirable compounds and impurities during the forging process.Oxygen Electron Configuration (Bohr Model) Its Uses The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier is known for proposing the name oxy-gene because he incorrectly believed that the new gas was essential to the formation of all acids.
Īlthough Carl Wilhelm Scheele had successfully obtained oxygen in 1771 in Uppsala, Sweden, his written account got published in 1777 much later than that of Priestley.
He observed that the gas made breathing easier and caused a candle to burn more brightly. Having produced oxygen in 1774 in Wiltshire, England by heating mercuric oxide and collecting the gas that was released, Priestley published an account of his discovery. The credit for the discovery of oxygen can be given to three chemists – Joseph Priestley, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and Antoine Lavoisier. In 1608, the Dutch engineer Cornelius Drebbel showed that heating potassium nitrate (saltpeter) released a gas, which we now know was oxygen. Īlthough several chemists had produced oxygen before its discovery, they all failed to identify it and describe its properties. Who discovered it: The English chemist Joseph Priestly and the German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele are known for their independent discovery of oxygen. Origin of its Name: It is derived from ‘oxy genes’, Greek for “acid forming”
0 kommentar(er)
