One of the first known experiments on how combustion needs air was carried out by Greek Philo of Byzantium in the 2nd century BC. He was also right about how it helps combustion work.Įarly experiments He was the first person to say it was a chemical element. Antoine Lavoisier gave the name oxygène to the gas in 1777. Priestley is usually thought to be the main discoverer because his work was published first (although he called it " dephlogisticated air", and did not think it was a chemical element). It is often thought that the gas was discovered in 1773 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Sweden, or in 1774 by Joseph Priestley, in England. Liquid oxygen and oxygen-rich compounds can be used as a rocket propellant.Ģ) was isolated by Michael Sendivogius before 1604. It also has medical uses and is used for breathing when there is no good air (by divers and firefighters, for example), and for welding. Oxygen gas is used for making steel, plastics and textiles. It absorbs ultraviolet radiation, which means less radiation reaches ground level. They use the Sun's light to get hydrogen from water, giving off oxygen.Īt the top of the Earth's atmosphere is ozone ( Oģ), in the ozone layer. Algae, cyanobacteria and plants make the Earth's oxygen gas by photosynthesis. Oxygen is a part of water, which all known life needs to live. Many molecules in living things have oxygen in them, such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and fats. Most living things use oxygen in respiration. The oxygen in these oxides and in other compounds (mostly silicate minerals, and calcium carbonate in limestone) makes up nearly half of the Earth's crust, by mass. It makes oxides and other compounds with many elements. Oxygen is part of the chalcogen group on the periodic table. It is pale blue when it is liquid or solid. In the air, two oxygen atoms usually join to make dioxygen ( OĢ), a colourless gas. Oxygen is more than a fifth of the Earth's atmosphere by volume. It is the third most common element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium.
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