 Discovery Information
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| Who: Joseph Priestley, Karl Wilhelm Scheele |
| When: 1774 |
| Where: England/Sweden |
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| Name Origin
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| Greek: oxus (acid) and gennan (generate). |
| "Oxygen" in different languages. |
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| Sources
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| Obtained primarily from by liquification and then fractional distillation of the air. World wide production is around 100 million tons.
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| Abundance
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| Universe: 10000 ppm (by weight) |
| Sun: 9000 ppm (by weight) |
| Carbonaceous meteorite: 4.1 x 105 ppm
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| Atmosphere: 2.095 x 105 ppm
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| Earth's Crust: 4.74 x 105 ppm
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| Human: |
| 6.1 x 108 ppb by weight
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| 2.4 x 108 ppb by atoms
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| Uses
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| Used in steel making, production of methanol (CH3OH), welding, water purification, cement and rocket propulsion. It is also required for supporting life and combustion.
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| Oxygen is a major component of air, produced by plants during photosynthesis, and is necessary for aerobic respiration in animals.
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| History
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| Oxygen was first described by Michal Sedziwoj, a Polish alchemist and philosopher in the late 16th century. Sedziwoj thought
of the gas given off by warm niter (saltpeter) as "the elixir of life".
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| Oxygen was more quantitatively discovered by the Swedish pharmacist Karl Wilhelm Scheele some time before 1773, but the discovery was not published until after the independent discovery by Joseph Priestley on August 1, 1774, who called the gas dephlogisticated air. Priestley published discoveries in 1775 and Scheele in 1777; consequently Priestley is usually given the credit. Both Scheele and Priestley produced oxygen by heating mercuric oxide.
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| Scheele called the gas 'fire air' because it was the only known supporter of combustion. It was later called 'vital air' because
it was and is vital for the existence of animal life.
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| The gas was named by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, after Priestley's publication in 1775, from Greek roots meaning "acid-former". As noted, the name reflects the then-common
incorrect belief that all acids contain oxygen. This is also the origin of the Japanese name of oxygen "sanso" (san=acid, so=element).
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| Oxygen was first time condensed in 1883 by professors of Jagiellonian University - Zygmunt Wroblewski (Polish chemist) Karol
Olszewski (Polish physicist and chemist).
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| Notes
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| Liquid and solid O2 are both a light blue colour. Ozone (O3) is a deeper blue colour.
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| Oxygen is the second most common element on Earth, composing around 46% of the mass of Earth's crust (the most common element)
and 28% of the mass of Earth as a whole, and is the third most common element in the universe. Forms almost 21% of atmosphere.
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| Hazards
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| Certain derivatives of oxygen, such as ozone (O3), singlet oxygen, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroxyl radicals and superoxide (O2-), are highly toxic. Highly concentrated sources of oxygen promote rapid combustion and therefore are fire and explosion hazards
in the presence of fuels.
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