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Atomic number 8

Electron configuration [He] 2s2 2p4

Melting point 54.36 K

Boiling point 90.188 K

Density 1.429 gL1

Oxygen was first discovered by Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. He

had produced oxygen gas by heating mercuric oxide and various nitrates by about

1772. Scheele called the gas "fire air" because it was the only known supporter of

combustion, and wrote an account of this discovery in a manuscript he titled

Treatise on Air and Fire, which he sent to his publisher in 1775. However, that

document was not published until 1777.

In the meantime, on August 1, 1774, an experiment conducted by the British

clergyman Joseph Priestley focused sunlight on mercuric oxide (HgO) inside a

glass tube, which liberated a gas he named "dephlogisticated air". He noted that

candles burned brighter in the gas and that a mouse was more active and lived

longer while breathing it. After breathing the gas himself, he wrote: "The feeling

of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air, but I fancied

that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards." Priestley

published his findings in 1775 in a paper titled "An Account of Further

Discoveries in Air" which was included in the second volume of his book titled

Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. Because he published

his findings first, Priestley is usually given priority in the discovery.


Uses of elemental oxygen include the production of steel, plastics and textiles,

brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen

therapy and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving.

Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a

member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive

nonmetallic element and oxidizing agent that readily forms compounds (notably

oxides) with most elements.[3] By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant

element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium. At STP, two atoms of the

element bind to form dioxygen, a diatomic gas that is colorless, odorless, and

tasteless, with the formula O

2.

Many major classes of organic molecules in living organisms, such as proteins,

nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and fats, contain oxygen, as do the major inorganic

compounds that are constituents of animal shells, teeth, and bone. Diatomic

oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% of the volume of air.[7] Oxygen is the most abundant

element by mass in the Earth's crust as part of oxide compounds such as silicon

dioxide, making up almost half of the crust's mass.[8]

Oxygen is an important part of the atmosphere, and is necessary to sustain most

terrestrial life as it is used in respiration. However, it is too chemically reactive to

remain a free element in Earth's atmosphere without being continuously

replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms, which use the

energy of sunlight to produce elemental oxygen from water. 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.

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