General Chemistry of Oxygen

• Oxides: O^-2 ,
• peroxides: O₂^-2 ,
• super oxide: O₂^-1.

Oxygen does not react with itself, nitrogen, or water under normal conditions. Oxygen does, however, dissolve in water at 20 degrees Celsius and 1 atmosphere. Oxygen also does not normally react with bases or acids. Group 1 metals (alkaline metals) are very reactive with oxygen and must be stored away from oxygen in order to prevent them from becoming oxidized. The metals at the bottom of the group are more reactive than those at the top. The reactions of a few of these metals are explored in more detail below.

Lithium: Reacts with oxygen to form white lithium oxide in the reaction below.

Sodium: Reacts with oxygen to form a white mixture of sodium oxide and sodium peroxide. The reactions are shown below.

• oxygen with sodium oxide:
  4Na+O2→2Na2O

• oxygen with sodium peroxide:
  2Na+O2→Na2O2

Potassium: Reacts with oxygen to form a mixture of potassium peroxide and potassium superoxide. The reactions are shown below.

• Potassium peroxide:
  2K+O2→2K2O2

• potassium superoxide:
  K+O2→KO2

Rubidium and Caesium: Both metals react to produce superoxides through the same process as that of the potassium superoxide reaction.

Group 2 metals (alkaline earth metals) react with oxygen through the process of burning to form metal oxides but there are a few exceptions.

Beryllium is very difficult to burn because it has a layer of beryllium oxide on its surface which prevents further interaction with oxygen. Strontium and barium react with oxygen to form peroxides. The reaction of barium and oxygen is shown below and the reaction with strontium would be the same.

Group 13 reacts with oxygen in order to form oxides and hydroxides that are of the form X2O3

and X(OH)3

. The variable X represents the various group 13 elements. As you go down the group, the oxides and hydroxides get increasingly basic.

Group 14 elements react with oxygen to form oxides. The oxides formed at the top of the group are more acidic than those at the bottom of the group. Oxygen reacts with silicon and carbon to form silicon dioxide and carbon dioxide. Carbon is also able to react with oxygen to form carbon monoxide which is slightly acidic. Germanium, tin, and lead react with oxygen to form monoxides and dioxides that are amphoteric which means that they react both with acids and bases.

Group 15 elements react with oxygen to form oxides. The most important are listed below.

• Nitrogen: N₂O, NO, N₂O₃, N₂O₄, N₂O₅
• Phosphorus: P₄O_6, P₄O_8, P₂O₅
• Arsenic: As₂O₃, As₂O₅
• Antimony: Sb₂O₃, Sb₂O₅
• Bismuth: Bi₂O₃, Bi₂O₅

Group 16 elements react with oxygen to form various oxides. Some of the oxides are listed below.

• Sulfur: SO, SO₂, SO₃, S₂O₇
• Selenium: SeO₂, SeO₃
• Tellurium: TeO, TeO₂, TeO₃
• Polonium: PoO, PoO₂, PoO₃

Group 17 elements (halogens) fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine react with oxygen to form oxides. Fluorine forms two oxides with oxygen which are F₂O and F₂O₂. Both fluorine oxides are called oxygen fluorides because fluorine is the more electronegative element. One of the fluorine reactions is shown below.

Group 18 Some would assume that the Noble Gases would not react with oxygen. However, xenon does react with oxygen to form XeO3

and XeO4. The ionization energy of xenon is low enough for the electronegative oxygen atom to "steal away" electrons. Unfortunately, XeO3

is HIGHLY unstable, and it has been known to spontaneously detonated in a clean, dry environment.

Transition metals react with oxygen to form metal oxides. However, gold, silver, and platinum do not react with oxygen. A few reactions involving transition metals are shown below.