I saw a demonstration of the magnetic nature of liquid dioxygen. Surely the gaseous form is also magnetic? So could Oxygen be somehow distilled from air with a strong enough magnet?
2006-10-11 02:39:42 · 13 answers · asked by Alyosha 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
As you must know given your preamble, diatomic oxygen is PARAMAGNETIC due to the presence of two unpaired electrons.
In liquid O2 the molecule are packed together and have a low velocity. This allows them to be captured within a magnetic field and display their paramagnetic properties.
The velocity of oxygen molecules in air is too high for them to remain inside the magnetic field for an adequate period of time. Paramagnetism only exists within the magnetic field so the molecules must be slowed down before any effect can be observed.
Whilst it is unlikely that you could distill oxygen from air using this property it is possible to demonstrate the paramagnetism in the gas state.
If you trap the oxygen in a bubble on the surface of a liquid (using a strong detergent say) you can use a magnet to move the bubbles over the surface of the liquid. This is because whilst the molecules still have a very high velocity, they are confined to a small volume and are therefore trapped within the magnetic field at all times.
Paramagnetic oxygen sensors are also reliant on the same physical property.
2006-10-11 02:50:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Really funny.
So many answers, but not one is correct...
It seems, people today do not know what physicists a hundred years ago already knew.
Many people today, including professors think exactly what has been stated by another user:
>The velocity of oxygen molecules in air is too high for them to remain inside the magnetic field for an
> adequate period of time. Paramagnetism only exists within the magnetic field so the molecules must
> be slowed down before any effect can be observed.
But this is not correct!!!
You can read again what already Faraday discovered: The oxygen concentration really changes in air, even if there's no confinement.
A famous experiment at that time, as even today, is to show that a flame gets repelled by a magnet. This is because the flame burns the oxygen, so there's less O2 in the flame, as the O2 gets attracted strongly by the magnet the inrushing unburnt O2 pushes away the flame.
Faraday made quite an extensive study on this with a self made electromagnet.
If you like you can read it for example in:
Philosophical Magazine - 1847 Ser 3 Volume 31 - p401-442
But be aware that for this experiment not the magnetic strength itself is directly used for the effect, but the gradient! But it's surely easier to get a strong gradient with a stronger magnet.
2014-12-29 10:43:49 · answer #2 · answered by Peter 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I like this question!
Dioxygen is is held together by a covalent bond between two oxygen atoms. Both oxygen atoms have the same electronegativitiy-a measure of an atom's attraction for shared electrons- making the molecule is non-polar.
BUT... all the electrons orbiting the oxygen atoms are not located in a fixed position: they move randomly around in electron clouds. Dioxygen has 16 electrons, all spontaneously moving within their electron clouds. At any given time it's really unlikely that these electrons, carrying negative charge, will be disributed equally on both atoms. As a result a very small polarity is usually present in dioxygen. This small polarity produces a very weak force between oxygen molecules, called Van der Walls forces.
This property of molecular oxygen is exceptionally important to life: it allows a small amount of molecular oxygen to dissolve in water, which, are very polar. If molecular oxygen did'nt display these forces it would fail to dissolve in water.
According to Wikipedia: "Magnetic forces are fundamental forces that arise from the movement of electrical charge". Althrough the movement and charge inequality are very small, it still seems possible-theroretically- that molecular oxygen could be drawn to an extremely strong magnet.
One problem: air is composed of other molecules, like nitrogen, which should also be drawn to this magnetism. This would'nt be able to seperate the different components of air- just withdraw molecules creating a vacume.
2006-10-11 08:31:31 · answer #3 · answered by theBoyLakin 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, because gaseous oxygen does not have any magnetic properties.
2006-10-11 02:41:53 · answer #4 · answered by mark 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Because it's a gas- their density is very less and it's quite hard to pull. Even if you can, all other gases will stick to magnet also. So it's impossible so far.
2006-10-11 02:53:18 · answer #5 · answered by AAA 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes thats right, only liquid ox is the magnetic form, paramagnetic to be precise. dont know why, check out wikipedia.com on it
2006-10-11 02:49:20 · answer #6 · answered by aussie_aussie9 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No.Oxygen exhibits no magnetic properties.
2006-10-11 02:48:10 · answer #7 · answered by openpsychy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess so, they do fill oxygen tanks with a oxygen generator though, don't they!
2006-10-11 02:42:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
of course not
2006-10-11 02:48:20 · answer #9 · answered by xochelsxo16 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No
2006-10-11 04:26:04 · answer #10 · answered by chemist 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋