Liquid oxygen

Liquid oxygen (commonly referred to by the abbreviation LOX or LO2) is the form of oxygen in its liquid state. It has important applications in aerospace, submarine and gas industries. Liquid oxygen is a light blue liquid with strong paramagnetic properties.

Liquid oxygen has a wide range of industrial and medical uses. Liquid oxygen is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. The total expansion ratio of liquid oxygen is as high as 860:1, because of this advantage it is widely used in industrial production and military in modern times.

Due to its low temperature properties, liquid oxygen can make the substances it comes into contact with very brittle. Liquid oxygen is also a very strong oxidant: organic matter burns violently in liquid oxygen. Some substances may explode if immersed in liquid oxygen for extended periods of time, including asphalt.

In the aerospace industry, liquid oxygen is an important oxidant, often used in combination with liquid hydrogen or kerosene (both as reducing agents). Some of the earliest ballistic missiles used liquid oxygen as the oxidizer, such as V2 (liquid oxygen-alcohol) and R-7 (liquid oxygen-kerosene). When used as a propellant, liquid oxygen provides a high specific impulse to the engine. In addition, compared with another common propellant combination, nitrous tetroxide-dimethyl hydrazine, several combinations of liquid oxygen are clean and environmentally friendly (hydrazine substances are highly toxic).

Early ICBMs also used liquid oxygen, but this configuration was quickly abandoned because liquid oxygen was difficult to store and had to be injected into the missile fuel tank before launch. This results in the missile being less responsive and easily detected by the enemy. The United States adopted solid rocket motors instead of liquid ones that used liquid oxygen, while the Soviet Union used toxic but storable hydrazine fuels in its liquid missiles. However, due to the cleanness and efficiency of liquid oxygen and its associated propellant, liquid oxygen is still used in large quantities as an oxidant in launch vehicles, including the main engine of the space shuttle and the first-stage main engine of Ariane 5.

Liquid oxygen explosives can be used in open-air blasting, but this practice is gradually being phased out, because liquid oxygen explosives are quite dangerous and are prone to accidents.

Because liquid oxygen volatilizes quickly at room temperature, the life of this explosive is very short, usually 15 to 20 minutes. Therefore, it must be impregnated temporarily before use. Before World War II, the explosive was widely used due to a shortage of nitrates. Later, with the availability of synthetic ammonia, nitrates could be supplied cheaply and in large quantities, and the use of liquid oxygen explosives was reduced. By the end of the 1960s, their use had basically ceased.

Liquid oxygen has important uses in industry, aerospace, submarine, medicine and other fields. How many people know about the use, storage and transportation of liquid oxygen.

Liquid oxygen is the form of oxygen in its liquid state. It has important applications in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries. Liquid oxygen is a light blue liquid with strong paramagnetic properties.

Liquid oxygen has a wide range of industrial and medical uses. Liquid oxygen is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. The total expansion ratio of liquid oxygen is as high as 860:1, because it is widely used in modern industrial production and military fields.