The Oxygen Elements by Laura La Bella

Author:Laura La Bella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

Tellurium

A brittle, silvery white metalloid that looks a lot like tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is primarily used in alloys and as a semiconductor. Tellurium is extremely rare. In fact, it is one of the nine most rare metallic elements on Earth (excluding radioactive metals). Tellurium is often added to lead to improve its strength and durability.

Chapter Four

Compounds of the Oxygen Elements

Oxygen is a highly reactive element that very easily combines with almost every element found on the periodic table. A compound is a substance that forms when two or more elements are chemically joined. Water, salt, and sugar are all examples of compounds. When the elements are joined in a compound, the elements lose their individual properties and the compound has properties different than those of the elements it contains.

Oxygen combines with all other elements except the noble gases helium, neon, and argon. These are elements whose outer shells of electrons are considered to be “full,” allowing them little to no opportunity to bind with other elements to create compounds. Oxygen even combines with some of the most rare elements, including technetium (technetium dioxide; Tc02), promethium (promethium oxide; Pm2O3), and neptunium (neptunium dioxide; NpO2). It can also combine with some of the least reactive elements, such as xenon (xenon trioxide; XeO3), gold (gold oxide; Au2O3), and platinum (platinum oxide; Pt02).

Common Oxygen Compounds

Some of the most common and most important compounds in everyday life are compounds of oxygen with another element.

Water (H20) is perhaps the most common and familiar of all oxygen compounds. Water is an oxide. An oxide is a chemical compound containing oxygen combined with another element. Water is a compound of oxygen with hydrogen, and each molecule of water contains two hydrogen atoms plus one oxygen atom. As we all know, water is essential for the survival of all forms of life. The term “water” usually refers only to its liquid form or state. But the substance also has a solid state, which occurs when the temperature goes down to its freezing point or below, and water becomes ice. Water’s gaseous state, often referred to as water vapor or steam, is present in the air around us. When liquid water is heated to its boiling temperature, all of the liquid will turn into vapor—the result of water reaching its boiling point. Water is the only substance that is present on Earth in all three phases, solid, liquid, and vapor.

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