| Ozone was discovered by Christian Friedrich Schonbein in 1840, who named it after the Greek word for smell (ozein), from the
peculiar odour in lightning storms. The actual odour from a lightning strike is from electron that have been freed during the rapid chemical changes that take place, and not ozone.
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| Ozone is a pale blue gas at standard temperature and pressure. It forms a dark blue liquid below -112°C and a dark blue solid
below -193°C. Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent. It is also unstable, decaying to ordinary oxygen (O2).
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| It is present in low concentrations throughout the Earth's atmosphere: ground level ozone is an air pollutant with harmful
effects on lung function and in the upper atmosphere it prevents damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the Earth's surface.
It is also formed from O2 by electrical discharges such as lightning, and by action of high energy electromagnetic radiation.
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| Some kinds of electrical equipment generate significant levels of ozone. This is especially true of devices using high voltages,
such as television sets, laser printers, and photocopiers.
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| Ozone is widely used in disenfecting water, killing bacteria and cleaning and bleaching fabrics. |
Dioxygen [ O2 ]
See Also