Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Liquid Oxygen Synthesis

trinitrotoluene - 17-10-2002 at 23:13

This topic is about condensing gaseous oxygen into liquid oxygen.

The boiling point of oxygen is about -184 degrees, and at -184 it begins to condense into a pale blue liquid.

The materials you will need is an oxygen tank with the approiate valves, 2 metal jars, 2 clamps (one big enough for a jar, and one for a test tube), 4 feet of 1/4 inch copper tubing, a good epoxy, a test tube (size depends on how much you want to make) and enough liquid nitrogen to fill one of your jars three times over. It also helps to have a dowel to wrap your tubing around.

Take your tubing and wrap it around the dowel in a tight coil, leaving 5 inches on the top and bottom. cut to size.

drill a 1/4 inch hole in the bottom of one of your jars. slide the coil in, and secure and seal with epoxy. Attach this jar 8 inches off yiour working surface with a clamp.

beneath it, place the other jar on the work surface, and position the clamped test tube directly under the tubing.

begin to slowly fill the top jar with liquid nitrogen, adding it very slowly, and letting it boil off until the jar and pipe are -194 degrees. when it stops boiling, fill it to the top, and repeat the process in the bottom jar.

attach your oxygen tank to the top of the coil, and turn it on very low. the flow should be extremely low.

the oxygen will condense in the coil, and eventually your test tube will fill with liquid oxygen.

i don't know much of what you would do with it, most things burn in it explosivly, which is a good thing.

little fun note: hold two electromagnets about a quarter inch apart, on, and pour small amounts of the liquid o2 between them, adn notice how the oxygen is paramagnetic, and sticks. i had an idea about a fuel distribution system for a "potato gun" type gun, but it would be to expensive and unruly.

File: A diagram of the coil setup- http://www.angelfire.com/movies/nutsmeller234/chem/coildiagr...

rikkitikkitavi - 18-10-2002 at 12:31

just remember to degrease all items coming in contact with the LO2... oxidizable compounds form a extremely flammable or even explosive mixture.

BTW, does anybody have a link to the place where they play with a barbecue and LO2 ?

/rickard

Polverone - 18-10-2002 at 13:09

http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/~ghg/