Oxygen and Sulfur - Comparison - Properties

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

oxygen and sulfur - comparison

Compare oxygen with another element

Compare sulfur with another element

Oxygen and Sulfur – 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.

Sulfur

Sulfur is abundant, multivalent, and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow crystalline solid at room temperature. Chemically, sulfur reacts with all elements except for gold, platinum, iridium, tellurium, and the noble gases.

Oxygen in Periodic Table

Sulfur in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Oxygen and Sulfur – 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.

Sulfur

The greatest commercial use of the element is the production of sulfuric acid for sulfate and phosphate fertilizers, and other chemical processes. Sulfur is increasingly used as a component of fertilizers. The most important form of sulfur for fertilizer is the mineral calcium sulfate. The element sulfur is used in matches, insecticides, and fungicides. Many sulfur compounds are odoriferous, and the smells of odorized natural gas, skunk scent, grapefruit, and garlic are due to organosulfur compounds.

Oxygen and Sulfur – Comparison in Table

Element	Oxygen	Sulfur
Density	0.00125 g/cm3	1.96 g/cm3
Ultimate Tensile Strength	N/A	N/A
Yield Strength	N/A	N/A
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity	N/A	N/A
Mohs Scale	N/A	2
Brinell Hardness	N/A	N/A
Vickers Hardness	N/A	N/A
Melting Point	-209.9 °C	112.8 °C
Boiling Point	-195.8 °C	444.7 °C
Thermal Conductivity	0.02598 W/mK	0.269 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	N/A	N/A
Specific Heat	1.04 J/g K	0.71 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	(N2) 0.7204 kJ/mol	1.7175 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	(N2) 5.56 kJ/mol	45 kJ/mol