Why must oxygen gas be diatomic?

Answer 1

so that the outer valence shells ' add up' to 8, is what I remember. This principle also applies to many other gases except for the inerts, which need nothing and live a solitary life with minimal interaction

Answer 2

It's just that oxygen by itself is probably one of the most reactive elements you could make. Therefore, it would require a fantastic amount of energy to rip it apart - and even if you managed to do that it would be a fraction of a nanosecond before it bound to something else, or just came back together with that oxygen molecule you ripped it apart from in the first place.

So in short, oxygen by itself is extremely unstable, and oxygen bound to another oxygen is, comparitively, much more stable.

In chemistry the most stable conformation is the one with the lowest energy. This is like the person (an oxygen) walking on the roof of a building. He's fine because the building (another oxygen) is holding him up.

But the second he steps off that roof, he's going to fall VERY fast until he lands on something else (another molecule he can 'bind' to).

Hope you liked those analogies =p

Answer 3

since oxygen doesnot have 2 electrons in its outermost orbit of it's valence shell
it covalently bonds with another atom of oxygen and becomes stable by sharing 2 electrons
since every molecule or atom tries to remain in stable condition it is diatomic

Answer 4

yes, the peson who ansewred was right. it has to be diatomic by sharing 4 electrons (2 form each oxygen atom) to form covalent bonds as such to form electronic configuration of 8 on the outer shell.

Answer 5

its the most stable molecule
it follows the octet rule

Answer 6

Because its pussy