Oxygen



Oxygen ( / ˈ ɒ k s ɨ dʒ ɨ <span class="IPA" style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode'; "><span style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: initial; " title="'n' in 'nigh'">n <span class="IPA" style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode'; " title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ <span class="IPA" style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode'; " title="English pronunciation respelling"> ok -si-jin ) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from theGreek roots ὀξύς (oxys) ("acid", literally "sharp", referring to the sour taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) ("producer", literally "begetter"), because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a very pale blue, odorless, tasteless diatomic gas with the formula O<sub style="line-height: 1em; ">2.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">Oxygen is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetallic element that readily formscompounds (notably oxides) with almost all other elements. Oxygen is a strong oxidizing agent and has the second highestelectronegativity of all the elements (only fluorine has a higher electronegativity).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height: 1em; ">[1] By mass, oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and helium<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NBB297_1-0" style="line-height: 1em; ">[2] and the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust, making up almost half of the crust's mass.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-lanl_2-0" style="line-height: 1em; ">[3] Free oxygen is too chemically reactive to appear on Earth without the photosynthetic action of living organisms, which use the energy of sunlight to produce elemental oxygen from water. Elemental O<sub style="line-height: 1em; ">2 only began to accumulate in the atmosphere after the evolutionary appearance of these organisms, roughly 2.5 billion years ago.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height: 1em; ">[4] Diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% of the volume of air.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ECE500_4-0" style="line-height: 1em; ">[5]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">Because it comprises most of the mass in water, oxygen comprises most of the mass of living organisms (for example, about two-thirds of the human body's mass). All major classes of structural molecules in living organisms, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, contain oxygen, as do the major inorganic compounds that comprise animal shells, teeth, and bone. Elemental oxygen is produced bycyanobacteria, algae and plants, and is used in cellular respiration for all complex life. Oxygen is toxic to obligately anaerobic organisms, which were the dominant form of early life on Earth until O<sub style="line-height: 1em; ">2 began to accumulate in the atmosphere. Another form (allotrope) of oxygen,ozone ( O<sub style="line-height: 1em; ">3 ), helps protect the biosphere from ultraviolet radiation with the high-altitude ozone layer, but is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At even higher low earth orbit altitudes atomic oxygen is a significant presence and a cause of erosion for spacecraft.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height: 1em; ">[6]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">Oxygen was independently discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Uppsala, in 1773 or earlier, and Joseph Priestley in Wiltshire, in 1774, but Priestley is often given priority because his work was published first. The name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-mellor_6-0" style="line-height: 1em; ">[7] whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">Oxygen is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquefied air, use of zeolites with pressure-cycling to concentrate oxygen from air, electrolysis of water and other means. Uses of oxygen include the production of steel, plastics and textiles; rocket propellant; oxygen therapy; and life support in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving.