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Why is pure oxygen called O2 when oxygen is an element? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Exactly as the title asks.

Pure oxygen is generally represented as O2 yet oxygen is an element of the periodic table. Why is it O2 and not just O?

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[-] megasin1@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

I don't know if anyone is interested but there would be more versions too. Solid oxygen (red oxygen) at high pressure used to be thought of as O4, tetraoxygen aka oxozone. But if you look at it with x-ray crystallography it's O8, octaoxygen. Cool huh

[-] korfuri@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

I had no idea, but yeah that's very cool!

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Is solid oxygen an amorphous mass of O4 and O8? Why doesn’t it form crystals?

this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023

155 points (91.9% liked)

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