Oxygen and Iron - Comparison - Properties

This article contains comparison of key thermal and atomic properties of oxygen and iron, two comparable chemical elements from the periodic table. It also contains basic descriptions and applications of both elements. Oxygen vs Iron.

oxygen and iron - comparison

Compare oxygen with another element

Compare iron with another element

Oxygen and Iron – About Elements

Oxygen

Oxygen is a colourless, odourless reactive gas, the chemical element of atomic number 8 and the life-supporting component of the air. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium.

Iron

Iron is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth’s outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust. Its abundance in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-mass stars.

Oxygen in Periodic Table

Iron in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Oxygen and Iron – Applications

Oxygen

Common uses of oxygen include production of steel, plastics and textiles, brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen therapy, and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving. Smelting of iron ore into steel consumes 55% of commercially produced oxygen. In this process, oxygen is injected through a high-pressure lance into molten iron, which removes sulfur impurities and excess carbon as the respective oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Uptake of oxygen from the air is the essential purpose of respiration, so oxygen supplementation is used in medicine. Treatment not only increases oxygen levels in the patient’s blood, but has the secondary effect of decreasing resistance to blood flow in many types of diseased lungs, easing work load on the heart.

Iron

Iron is used in numerous sectors such as electronics, manufacturing, automotive, and construction and building. Iron is the most widely used of all the metals, accounting for over 90% of worldwide metal produc0tion. Its low cost and high strength often make it the material of choice material to withstand stress or transmit forces, such as the construction of machinery and machine tools, rails, automobiles, ship hulls, concrete reinforcing bars, and the load-carrying framework of buildings. Since pure iron is quite soft, it is most commonly combined with alloying elements to make steel. Steels are iron–carbon alloys that may contain appreciable concentrations of other alloying elements. Adding a small amount of non-metallic carbon to iron trades its great ductility for the greater strength. Due to its very-high strength, but still substantial toughness, and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most useful and common ferrous alloy in modern use. There are thousands of alloys that have different compositions and/or heat treatments. The mechanical properties are sensitive to the content of carbon, which is normally less than 1.0 wt%.

Oxygen and Iron – Comparison in Table

Element	Oxygen	Iron
Density	0.00125 g/cm3	7.874 g/cm3
Ultimate Tensile Strength	N/A	540 MPa
Yield Strength	N/A	50 MPa
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity	N/A	211 GPa
Mohs Scale	N/A	4.5
Brinell Hardness	N/A	490 MPa
Vickers Hardness	N/A	608 MPa
Melting Point	-209.9 °C	1538 °C
Boiling Point	-195.8 °C	2861 °C
Thermal Conductivity	0.02598 W/mK	80.2 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	N/A	11.8 µm/mK
Specific Heat	1.04 J/g K	0.44 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	(N2) 0.7204 kJ/mol	13.8 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	(N2) 5.56 kJ/mol	349.6 kJ/mol