Liquid gasses?

Question

If you took one part liquid hydrogen and mixed it with two parts of liquid oxygen, would you get some bizarre liquid water? Why or why not?

Answer 1

erm.. not really.
In the first place, "parts" is a very generic thing. keep in mind that hydrogen 'atoms' are considerably smaller than oxygen 'atoms'... additionally, when you have them in pure form, they tend to be considered stable when bonded to another one of their own.. H-H and O=O ?

In any case, ..you're asking ...if you had 100 oxygen atoms in liquid form and mixed them with 200 hydrogen atoms, what would happen?
The result will depend on the conditions (specifically of pressure and temperature). When you mix them, in reality, it won't mix perfectly. Particles will collide and break the energy bands needed or be attracted or what have you, to make the H20 molecules with which we are so familiar. H-O-H btw.. and they're at 130 degrees to the oxygen or some such, which explains how microwaves heat food =p.

So, some H2O will form, some OH- will form, some O2 will result, some H2 will result, some H+ will result.. at most temperatures, the mixture will be a combination of liquid particles mixed with gas particles (can be bound in a sealed volume.. the liquid volume will be, in most cases, constant, and the vapour [gas] will expand to fit the remainder of the container ..under high pressure or low, or whatever).


In short, ..mixing two liquids can create gas-liquid combinations, but ..don't be confused. They're to be treated as separate particles. Air can be moist because the gas particles have wet, definitively liquid particles attached to it. liquid bleach added to liquid ammonia creates mustard gas, with perhaps some liquid+solid precipitate mixture remaining.

This all can be answered with balancing equations. Stability, ideal conditions, etc. You know this, you just didn't realise it =]

Answer 2

Liquid Hydrogen is VERY cold and typically under VERY high pressure. Liquid Oxygen less so. But, that is what the Space Shuttle and many rockets use. The liquids are combined explosively to generate thrust. Combining Hydrogen and Oxygen is still called Burning and it produces, as you might expect, water and the water it produces will almost always be a gas because of the burning reaction. In other words, by burning -- the only way typically to combine Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen, you already get a heating reaction and thus the result is typically already hot enough to be steam (water vapour).

Answer 3

Maybe it would help to think about it in terms of chemical bonding and which atoms are bonded to which others. How about the reverse? Does water spontaneously separate into hydrogen and oxygen? Why or why not?

Answer 4

Sound like fuel cell reaction to me. Liquidfied hydrogen getting fed in as gas and mix with oxygen to produce electricity and water. I think.

Answer 5

no. you would get ice. hydrogen and oxygen become liquid near absolute zero.