Oxygen and Chlorine - Comparison - Properties

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

oxygen and chlorine - comparison

Compare oxygen with another element

Compare chlorine with another element

Oxygen and Chlorine – 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.

Chlorine

Chlorine is a yellow-green gas at room temperature. It is an extremely reactive element and a strong oxidising agent: among the elements, it has the highest electron affinity and the third-highest electronegativity, behind only oxygen and fluorine.

Oxygen in Periodic Table

Chlorine in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Oxygen and Chlorine – 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.

Chlorine

Chlorine is used in the manufacture of a wide range of consumer products, about two-thirds of them organic chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), many intermediates for the production of plastics, and other end products which do not contain the element. As a common disinfectant, elemental chlorine and chlorine-generating compounds are used more directly in swimming pools to keep them sanitary. While perhaps best known for its role in providing clean drinking water, chlorine chemistry also helps provide energy-efficient building materials, electronics, fiber optics, solar energy cells, 93 percent of life-saving pharmaceuticals, 86 percent of crop protection compounds, medical plastics, and much more.

Oxygen and Chlorine – Comparison in Table

Element	Oxygen	Chlorine
Density	0.00125 g/cm3	0.0032 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	N/A
Brinell Hardness	N/A	N/A
Vickers Hardness	N/A	N/A
Melting Point	-209.9 °C	-101 °C
Boiling Point	-195.8 °C	-34.6 °C
Thermal Conductivity	0.02598 W/mK	0.0089 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	N/A	N/A
Specific Heat	1.04 J/g K	0.48 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	(N2) 0.7204 kJ/mol	3.23 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	(N2) 5.56 kJ/mol	10.2 kJ/mol