Liquid Nitrogen vs. Liquid Oxygen: Fire

What happens when nitrogen and oxygen are exposed to fire?

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• liquid
• nitrogen
• oxygen
• experiments
• combustion
• fire
• frostbite
• theater
• jlab
• jlabs
• jefferson
• lab
• science
• education

[Teankun]

Did burning oxygen make ozone?

[JeffersonLab]

@Teankun No. For the most part, it made water (if it combined with hydrogen) or carbon dioxide (if it combined with carbon).

[Teankun]

@JeffersonLab So how is ozone made? I thought it was made when oxygen reacts with itself

[JeffersonLab]

@Teankun There are a number of processes that can lead to ozone production. If you want to make ozone just from oxygen, you have to split some of the oxygen molecules apart into atomic oxygen. The sun does this with ultraviolet light in the stratosphere. Since diatomic oxygen (O2) is more stable than ozone, you can't 'burn' oxygen to make ozone. It's like expecting a ball to roll uphill all on its own.

[Teankun]

@JeffersonLab Ah, so oxygen can't burn. My brother said it it did because of oxygen fillled rooms burning. I thouight it was whatever the oxygen was touching would just burn like crazy.

[JeffersonLab]

@Teankun Right, oxygen does not burn. You can see this in the video. The fire went out once it ran out of match (fuel), even though there was still plenty of oxygen in the test tube.

[Mishka110702]

So cool

[rodrommel]

@Teankun lightning. Whenever there's an electrical spark, that weird smell that's leftover is ozone being formed by the hot plasma of an electrical arc

[Teankun]

@JeffersonLab Thanks. Humbibng to know that there is stil a lot for even a Chem Major to learn,

[JeffersonLab]

@rubixcubeguy Happily (?), I'm not able to reproduce the error. With luck, it was an accidental, temporary 'feature' YouTube/Google created.