Boron and Oxygen - Comparison - Properties

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

boron and oxygen - comparison

Compare boron with another element

Compare oxygen with another element

Boron and Oxygen – About Elements

Boron

Significant concentrations of boron occur on the Earth in compounds known as the borate minerals. There are over 100 different borate minerals, but the most common are: borax, kernite, ulexite etc. Natural boron consists primarily of two stable isotopes, 11B (80.1%) and 10B (19.9%). In nuclear industry boron is commonly used as a neutron absorber due to the high neutron cross-section of isotope 10B. Its (n,alpha) reaction cross-section for thermal neutrons is about 3840 barns (for 0.025 eV neutron). Isotope 11B has absorption cross-section for thermal neutrons about 0.005 barns (for 0.025 eV neutron). Most of (n,alpha) reactions of thermal neutrons are 10B(n,alpha)7Li reactions accompanied by 0.48 MeV gamma emission.

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.

Boron in Periodic Table

Oxygen in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Boron and Oxygen – Applications

Boron

Nearly all boron ore extracted from the Earth is destined for refinement into boric acid and sodium tetraborate pentahydrate. In the United States, 70% of the boron is used for the production of glass and ceramics. The major global industrial-scale use of boron compounds (about 46% of end-use) is in production of glass fiber for boron-containing insulating and structural fiberglasses, especially in Asia. Boron is added to boron steels at the level of a few parts per million to increase hardenability. Higher percentages are added to steels used in the nuclear industry due to boron’s neutron absorption ability (e.g. pellets of Boron Carbide). Boron can also increase the surface hardness of steels and alloys through boriding. Boron carbide and cubic boron nitride powders are widely used as abrasives.

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.

Boron and Oxygen – Comparison in Table

Element	Boron	Oxygen
Density	2.46 g/cm3	0.00143 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	9.5	N/A
Brinell Hardness	N/A	N/A
Vickers Hardness	49000 MPa	N/A
Melting Point	2079 °C	-218.4 °C
Boiling Point	3927 °C	-183 °C
Thermal Conductivity	27 W/mK	0.02674 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	5-7 µm/mK	N/A
Specific Heat	1.02 J/g K	0.92 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	50.2 kJ/mol	(O2) 0.444 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	508 kJ/mol	(O2) 6.82 kJ/mol