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Liquid Oxygen

 
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Liquid oxygen
 
 
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Liquid oxygen (also LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace
Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding outer space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through Aircraft and Space exploration....
, submarine
Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability....
 and gas
Gas

In physics, a gas is a state of matter, consisting of a collection of particles without a definite shape or volume that are in more or less random motion....
 industry) is a form of the element oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
. It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic
Paramagnetism

Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism which occurs only in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials are attracted to magnetic fields, hence have a relative magnetic permeability greater than 1 ....
. Liquid oxygen has a density of 1.141 g/cm³ (1.141 kg/L) and is moderately cryogenic
Cryogenics

In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. Rather than the familiar temperature scales of Fahrenheit and Celsius, cryogenicists use the Kelvin scales....
 (freezing point: 50.5 K (-222.65 °C), boiling point: 90.188 K (-182.96 °C) at 101.325 kPa (760 mm Hg).






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Liquid Oxygen
Liquid oxygen (also LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace
Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding outer space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through Aircraft and Space exploration....
, submarine
Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability....
 and gas
Gas

In physics, a gas is a state of matter, consisting of a collection of particles without a definite shape or volume that are in more or less random motion....
 industry) is a form of the element oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
. It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic
Paramagnetism

Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism which occurs only in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials are attracted to magnetic fields, hence have a relative magnetic permeability greater than 1 ....
. Liquid oxygen has a density of 1.141 g/cm³ (1.141 kg/L) and is moderately cryogenic
Cryogenics

In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. Rather than the familiar temperature scales of Fahrenheit and Celsius, cryogenicists use the Kelvin scales....
 (freezing point: 50.5 K (-222.65 °C), boiling point: 90.188 K (-182.96 °C) at 101.325 kPa (760 mm Hg). In commerce, liquid oxygen is classified as an industrial gas
Industrial gas

Industrial gas is a group of gases that are commercely Manufacturing and Wiktionary:sold for uses in other applications. These gases are mainly used in an industrial processes, such as steelmaking, oil refining, Medicine applications, fertilizer, semiconductors, etc,....
 and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes. Liquid oxygen is obtained from the oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 found naturally in air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
 by fractional distillation
Fractional distillation

Fractional distillation is the separation of a mixture into its component parts, or fractions, such as in separating chemical compound by their boiling point by heating them to a temperature at which several fractions of the compound will evaporate....
. Liquid oxygen has an expansion ratio
Expansion ratio

The expansion ratio of a Liquification and cryogenic substance is the volume of a given amount of that substance in liquid form compared to the volume of the same amount of substance in gaseous form, at a given temperature....
 of 860:1 at 20 °C; and because of this, it is used in some commercial and military aircraft as a source of breathing oxygen.

Due to its cryogenic nature, LOX can cause the materials it touches to become extremely brittle. Liquid oxygen is also a very powerful oxidising agent: organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen. Further; if soaked in LOX some can detonate unpredictably on subsequent contact. Petrochemicals often exhibit this behavior, including asphalt
Asphalt

Asphalt is a sticky, black and highly viscosity liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits sometimes termed asphaltum....
.

LOX is a common liquid oxidizer propellant for spacecraft rocket
Spacecraft propulsion

Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research....
 applications, usually in combination with liquid hydrogen
Liquid hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule H2 form.To exist as a liquid, H2 must be pressurized and cooled to a very low temperature, 20.28 K ....
 or kerosene
Kerosene

Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid....
. LOX is useful in this role because it creates a high specific impulse
Specific impulse

Specific impulse is a way to describe the efficiency of rocket engine and jet engine engines. It represents the impulse per unit of propellant....
. It was used in the very first rocket applications like the V2
V-2 rocket

The V-2 rocket was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight, the progenitor of all modern rockets....
 missile (under the name A-Stoff and Sauerstoff) and Redstone
Redstone (rocket)

First launched in 1953, the United States Redstone rocket was a direct descendant of the German V-2 rocket. Redstone was used for the first live nuclear missile tests by the United States....
, R-7 Semyorka
R-7 Semyorka

The R-7 Semyorka was the world's first true intercontinental ballistic missile and was deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War from 1959 to 1968....
 or Atlas boosters. LOX was also used in some early ICBMs, although more modern ICBMs do not use LOX because its cryogenic properties and need for regular replenishment to replace boiloff make it harder to maintain and launch quickly. Many modern rockets use LOX, including the main engines on the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
.

LOX also had extensive use in making oxyliquit
Oxyliquit

An oxyliquit is an explosive material made of a mixture of liquid oxygen with a suitable fuel, usually carbon or some organic chemical , wood meal, or aluminium powder or sponge; the material is capable of absorbing several times its weight of LOX....
 explosives, but is rarely used now due to a high rate of accidents.

The tetraoxygen
Tetraoxygen

The tetraoxygen molecule , also called oxozone was first predicted in 1924 by Gilbert N. Lewis, who proposed it as an explanation for the failure of liquid oxygen to obey Curie's law....
 molecule (O4) was first predicted in 1924 by Gilbert N. Lewis
Gilbert N. Lewis

Gilbert Newton Lewis was a famous American physical chemistry known for the discovery of the covalent bond , his purification of heavy water, his reformulation of chemical thermodynamics in a mathematically rigorous manner accessible to ordinary chemists, his theory of Lewis acids and bases, and his photochemical experiments....
, who proposed it as an explanation for the failure of liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen

Liquid oxygen is a form of the element oxygen. It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetism. Liquid oxygen has a density of 1.141 g/cm? and is moderately cryogenics ...
 to obey Curie's law
Curie's law

In a paramagnetic material the magnetization of the material is directly proportional to an applied magnetic field. However, if the material is heated, this proportionality is reduced: for a fixed value of the field, the magnetization is inversely proportional to temperature....
. Today it seems Lewis was off, but not by far: computer simulations indicate that although there are no stable O4 molecules in liquid oxygen, O2 molecules do tend to associate in pairs with antiparallel spin
Spin (physics)

In quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nucleus, hadrons, and elementary particles. For particles with non-zero spin, spin direction is an important intrinsic degrees of freedom ....
s, forming transient O4 units.

Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen is a liquefied atmospheric gas produced industrially in large quantities by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is pure nitrogen in a liquid state at very low temperature....
 has a lower boiling point, at -196 °C (77 K) than oxygen's -183 °C (90 K), and vessels containing liquid nitrogen can condense oxygen from air: when most of the nitrogen has evaporated from such a vessel there is a risk that liquid oxygen remaining can react violently with organic material. Conversely, liquid nitrogen or liquid air
Liquid air

Liquid air is air that has been cooled to very low temperatures so that it has condensed to a liquid. At room temperature, it must be kept in a Dewar flask....
 can be oxygen-enriched by letting it stand in open air; atmospheric oxygen dissolves in it, while nitrogen evaporates preferentially.

See also

  • List of Stoffs
    List of Stoffs

    During World War II, Germany fielded many aircraft and rockets whose fuels were designated -Stoff.In German language, Stoff means roughly the same thing as English language "material", and like the ubiquitous English noun "stuff" derives ultimately from the Old French word estoffe ....
  • Expansion ratio
    Expansion ratio

    The expansion ratio of a Liquification and cryogenic substance is the volume of a given amount of that substance in liquid form compared to the volume of the same amount of substance in gaseous form, at a given temperature....
  • Oxygen
    Oxygen

    Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
  • Karol Olszewski
    Karol Olszewski

    Karol Stanislaw Olszewski was an Austrian-born Poland chemist, mathematician and physicist.Olszewski studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krak?w in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics, and of Chemistry and Biology....
     and Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski
    Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski

    Zygmunt Florenty Wr?blewski was a Poland chemist and physicist.Wr?blewski was born in Grodno . He studied at the Kiev University and after a six-year exile for participating in the January Uprising , he studied in Berlin and Heidelberg....
  • Rocket fuel
  • Solid oxygen
    Solid oxygen

    Solid oxygen forms at normal atmospheric pressure at a temperature below 54.36 K . Solid oxygen O2, like liquid oxygen, is a clear substance with a light diffuse sky radiation color caused by absorption in the red ....
  • Tetraoxygen
    Tetraoxygen

    The tetraoxygen molecule , also called oxozone was first predicted in 1924 by Gilbert N. Lewis, who proposed it as an explanation for the failure of liquid oxygen to obey Curie's law....
  • Liquid nitrogen
    Liquid nitrogen

    Liquid nitrogen is a liquefied atmospheric gas produced industrially in large quantities by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is pure nitrogen in a liquid state at very low temperature....
  • Liquid hydrogen
    Liquid hydrogen

    Liquid hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule H2 form.To exist as a liquid, H2 must be pressurized and cooled to a very low temperature, 20.28 K ....
  • Cryogen
  • Liquid helium
    Liquid helium

    Helium exists in liquid form only at very low temperatures. The boiling point and critical point depend on the isotope of the helium; see the table below for values....