Periodic Element

Oxygen

Chalcogen

Just under half the Earth's crust by mass, at about 46 per cent, and the most abundant element in it. Free oxygen in the air is not primordial; it is the waste product of photosynthesis, accumulated over billions of years. Its discovery is a genuine three-way tangle: Carl Wilhelm Scheele prepared it around 1771 to 1772 but published only in 1777, Joseph Priestley prepared and published in 1774, and Antoine Lavoisier, who did neither first, understood what it was and named it. Lavoisier's oxygen theory of combustion destroyed the phlogiston doctrine and with it the last chemical framework alchemy had left.

Facts

Identity

Symbol

O 1

Atomic Number

8 1

Period

Period 2 1

Group

Chalcogen 1

Origins

Origin of the Name

Named from the Greek oxys, acid or sharp, and genes, forming, reflecting Antoine Lavoisier's mistaken belief that all acids contained it. 1

Classification

Element category

Reactive Nonmetal 2

Learn More

A Discovery with Three Claimants

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, working as an apothecary in Sweden, prepared oxygen at some point in 1771 or 1772, described it as fire air, and did not publish until 1777. Joseph Priestley, in England, obtained it on 1 August 1774 by focusing sunlight onto mercuric oxide, noted that a candle burned in it with remarkable vigour and that a mouse lived unusually long in it, and published in 1775. Antoine Lavoisier, in Paris, heard of Priestley's result from Priestley himself over dinner in October 1774, repeated the experiment, and understood it.

That is the whole dispute, and every part of it is true. Scheele made it first. Priestley published first. Lavoisier explained it, named it, and built a theory of chemistry on it. National accounts have tended to promote whichever of the three suits them, and the honest summary is that the discovery was genuinely divided and that the three contributions were of different kinds.

What Priestley and Scheele had was a gas. What Lavoisier had was combustion. The prevailing account held that burning bodies release a substance called phlogiston; Lavoisier showed that they instead combine with something drawn from the air, and that the products weigh more than the starting materials rather than less. He named the gas oxygene, acid-former, on the mistaken belief that it is present in all acids, and the error is fossilised in the name.

The consequence reaches beyond chemistry. Phlogiston was the last framework in which alchemical practice and academic chemistry still shared a vocabulary. Lavoisier's list of elements in 1789, and his insistence that an element is simply whatever cannot be broken down further by experiment, replaced a system of principles and qualities with a system of substances. Alchemy did not so much lose the argument as lose the language the argument had been conducted in.

The Gas That a Planet Made

Oxygen is the most abundant element in the Earth's crust, about 46 per cent by mass, but nearly all of it is locked into silicate rock, where it is doing nothing. Free oxygen in the atmosphere is a different matter, and it is an anomaly.

Oxygen is reactive. Left alone it combines with iron, with carbon, with sulfur, with almost anything, and within a geologically short time it would be gone. That the air is a fifth oxygen means something is producing it continuously. That something is photosynthesis.

For roughly the first half of Earth's history there was effectively none. Cyanobacteria began splitting water for its hydrogen and discarding the oxygen, and from about 2.4 billion years ago the free gas began to accumulate, in what is called the Great Oxidation Event. Banded iron formations, the layered red rock that supplies most of the world's iron ore, are the record of dissolved iron in the ancient oceans being precipitated out by that new oxygen. For much of the life then existing, the change was a catastrophe.

Aerobic respiration, which extracts far more energy from food than any anaerobic route, became possible only afterwards, and every complex organism depends on it. Ozone, a three-atom form of oxygen concentrated in the stratosphere, absorbs the ultraviolet that would otherwise make the land surface uninhabitable, and it too is a product of the free oxygen beneath it.

Liquid oxygen is pale blue and magnetic, clinging to the poles of a magnet, which is a directly visible consequence of the two unpaired electrons in the ordinary oxygen molecule. Medical use of concentrated oxygen dates from the late nineteenth century; industrial use, chiefly in steelmaking, consumes far more of it.

Connections

Found In

Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin, a mineraloid rather than a crystalline mineral; Mindat gives its organic composition an approximate formula near C10H16O.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Amethyst

Amethyst is quartz (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Aqua Fortis

Aqua Fortis is nitric acid (HNO3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Aqua Regia

From its own chemical-formula fact: a mixture of HNO3 and HCl.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Aqua Vitae

From its own chemical-formula fact: C2H5OH (ethanol) in aqueous solution.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Aquamarine

Aquamarine is beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Arsenic

White arsenic, the historically dominant form, is arsenic trioxide (As2O3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Black Obsidian

Black Obsidian is volcanic glass composed chiefly of silica (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Black Tourmaline

Black Tourmaline is schorl, an iron-rich boron silicate of the tourmaline group; oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Bloodstone

Bloodstone is chalcedony quartz (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Blue Sapphire

Blue Sapphire is corundum (Al2O3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Blue Vitriol

Blue Vitriol is copper(II) sulfate (CuSO4.5H2O); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Borax

Borax is hydrated sodium borate (Na2B4O7.10H2O); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Calamine

Calamine's carbonate form (smithsonite) is zinc carbonate (ZnCO3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Calcite

Calcite is calcium carbonate (CaCO3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Carnelian

Carnelian is quartz (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Chrysoberyl

Chrysoberyl is chrysoberyl (BeAl2O4); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Chrysoberyl Cats Eye

Chrysoberyl Cats Eye is chrysoberyl (BeAl2O4); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Citrine

Citrine is quartz (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Clear Quartz

Clear Quartz is crystalline silicon dioxide (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Coral

Coral is calcium carbonate (CaCO3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Emerald

Emerald is beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Fire Agate

Fire Agate is chalcedony (SiO2) with iridescent limonite/goethite layers; oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Garnet

Garnet is a silicate mineral of the garnet group; oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Glauber's Salt

Glauber's Salt is sodium sulfate decahydrate (Na2SO4.10H2O); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Green Aventurine

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Green Calcite

Green Calcite is calcium carbonate (CaCO3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Green Tourmaline

Green Tourmaline is a boron silicate of the tourmaline group; oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Green Vitriol

Green Vitriol is iron(II) sulfate (FeSO4.7H2O); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Hematite

Hematite is iron oxide (Fe2O3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Hessonite

Hessonite is grossular garnet (Ca3Al2(SiO4)3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Iolite

Iolite is cordierite ((Mg,Fe)2Al4Si5O18); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Jade

Jade is nephrite or jadeite, both silicate minerals; oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Jasper

Jasper is an iron-bearing, opaque variety of chalcedony (cryptocrystalline quartz); element set matches the Carnelian entry.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Jet

Jet is a compact form of lignite, fossilized driftwood, organic carbonaceous material rather than a crystalline mineral.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Kyanite

Kyanite is kyanite (Al2SiO5); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Lapis Lazuli

Lapis lazuli is a rock, not a single mineral; Oxygen is common to lazurite, calcite and pyrite, its three named constituent minerals.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Litharge

Litharge is lead(II) oxide (PbO); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Lodestone

Lodestone is naturally magnetized magnetite (Fe3O4), an iron oxide; element set matches the Hematite entry (a different iron oxide, same two elements).

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Malachite

Malachite is copper carbonate hydroxide (Cu2CO3(OH)2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Moon Stone

Moon Stone is the feldspar orthoclase (KAlSi3O8); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Oil of Vitriol

Oil of Vitriol is sulfuric acid (H2SO4); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Onyx

Onyx is a banded variety of chalcedony (cryptocrystalline quartz); element set matches the Clear Quartz and Opal entries.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Opal

Opal is hydrated silica (SiO2*nH2O); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Peridot

Peridot is olivine ((Mg,Fe)2SiO4); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Powder of Algaroth

Powder of Algaroth is antimony oxychloride (SbOCl); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Red Coral

Red Coral is calcium carbonate (CaCO3); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Red Spinel

Red Spinel is spinel (MgAl2O4); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Red Tourmaline

Red Tourmaline is a boron silicate of the tourmaline group; oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz is quartz (SiO2); oxygen is part of that chemical formula.

Source Mindat.org - The Mineralogical ReferenceHudson Institute of Mineralogy

Showing 1 to 50 of 72 in Found In, page 1 of 2.

Sources

1. Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements

John Emsley, Oxford University Press, 2011s.v. Oxygen; Scheele, Priestley and LavoisierView the Source

2. Oxygen (Wikipedia)

Lead section: element category

Quote, Lead section: element category

It is highly reactive, a nonmetal, and a potent oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds.

View the Source

The Secrets of Alchemy

Lawrence M. Principe, University of Chicago Press, 2013the fall of phlogiston and the end of the alchemical vocabularyView the Source

Essays About This Entity (1 essay)

Chemistry of the Sacred

The element present in four sacred gemstones out of five

Read the Essay

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Oxygen

Found In