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Liquid Oxygen

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potterfan3 | 21:02 Wed 14th Jun 2006 | Science
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Where can I buy Liquid Oxygen? (or solid if you can)
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What do you want it for?
i'm sure boc supply it, not sure if you need a licence, as it's explosive when pure, will go bang in contact with oil,grease
If you are in the UK, BOC certainly have LOX in stock. It's also obtainable from various chemical supply houses.

However, unless your buying it for a bona-fide research or educational establishment and have credentials to prove it, you'll find it almost impossible to purchase due to strict regulations on its sale, storage and use.

You have to remember that safe use of LOX requires a great deal of training because of the potential for explosion.

Your local fire service will also have something to say about it if your caught in possession of LOX without proper safeguards in place.



ive got a few tanks left over from my failed spaceshot attempt if you want to come over and collect them potterfan lolololol

Sorry potterfan, but you won't be able to purchase it. You obviously haven't the expertise to use it safely since you asked whether you could purchase solid.

Oxygenb is not explosive even when pure (which it always is at it is an element) also oxygen can be bought as a solid ugly_bob and instead of making a snide remark about someone just trying to get help you could explain why you incorrectly believe you cannot buy solid oxygen.
Zevon:

It seems that there's some confusion here

Pure oxygen is highly reactive and promotes rapid combustion and increases the burning rate of combustible material. In the presence of fuels, this leads to fire and explosion.

Oxygen in contact with easily oxidisable, organic, or other combustible materials may result in ignition, violent combustion or explosion. Sparks or flames are not necessarily necessary to ignite an oxygen-fuel mix. Furthermore, nearly all materials burn vigorously in oxygen - including dry textiles enriched with the gas.

Now you may say that in the absence of fuels, fire and explosion would not occur. However, because oxygen can utilise an extremely wide range of materials as fuel as illustrated above, an explosion becomes virtually inevitable.

It follows that from a practical standpoint, oxygen is explosive.

To illustrate, applying certain types of grease around the outlet valves of oxygen cylinders will allow oxygen to explode spontaneosly. You will note that we are not even discussing the more serious risks associated with friction, sparks or flames at this point.

If you're still sceptical, find an account on the internet of the Apollo 1 explosion. Alternatively, find a hospital worker who can tell you about the training they have received regarding the danger of explosions at the outlet valves of the oxgen piped to wards.



Zevon:

With regard to your ability to purchase solid oxygen, you are very much mistaken.

I outlined in my earlier post why it is not possible to purchase oxygen routinely.

As far as the gas goes, one or two underhand methods of obtaining an odd cylinder or two have occured to me - it would be unethical for me to mention them here.

However, you will find it impossible to acquire solid oxygen. Solid oxygen liquifies to LOX at around -220 degrees Celsius. At this temperature unless you have the very specialised knowledge necessary to confine, transport and utilise the solid oxygen, you will find that you are forbidden from purchasing it no matter how convincing you would be regarding its end use.

Solid Oxygen is an extremely dangerous substance in untrained hands and safety regulations are in place in most countries to prevent anything other than bona-fide purchases.
Zevon:

I cannot see why you consider that ugly_bob was making a "snide" remark about sourcing LOX or solid oxygen.

Ugly_bob was after all, telling the truth, and if something is impossible to purchase then there is little point in pursuing the matter. It's as simple as that. It is also obvious that the OP has only rudimentary knowledge of what he is attempting to purchase, which is a recipe for disaster.

It looks to me as if Ugly-bob had the welfare of the community at large in mind when he replied and because of this, he deserves a medal in my book.

The fact that you have remained convinced that purchase of solid oxygen is feasible is immaterial.

With regard to your view about "someone just trying to get help", I'm keeping an open mind and others should do so too. Who are they helping? What needs helping? Where does helping end?

When you're talking about acquiring solid oxygen, "helping" is not a concept at the forefront of my mind - suspicion would be nearer the mark.

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ok then, how do i get a freezer that goes down to -220 degrees Celsius? (i'll try and freeze air!)
Forget about a freezer going down to -220 degrees Celsius. Let's take it from the beginning.

Oxygen may be obtained from the atmosphere by the liquefaction and fractional distillation of air. Liquid air is mainly a mixture of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen. The nitrogen is more volatile and boils off first during evaporation. Because some oxygen evaporates with the nitrogen, separation of the two gases is brought about by fractionation. Fractionating here means letting the evolved gas mixture bubble through liquid air rich in oxygen in a tall rectifying column. The oxygen in the gas mixture condenses and almost pure nitrogen gas leaves the top of the column, leaving almost pure liquid oxygen which is then evaporated to give oxygen gas.

The oxygen gas is distributed as a compressed gas in high pressure cylinders.

Gaseous oxygen can be changed at normal pressure to liquid by cooling with liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius although other industrial methods are used as well.

Solid oxygen is formed by further prolonged cooling, or by the application of phenomenally high pressures on gaseous oxygen at normal temperatures. Again, various methods are used.

Don't waste you time trying to freeze air!

you can buy a powerfull oxident called "solid-ox" from some spescilist welding shops.


be extremely cairfull though. solid-ox is prone ot desiling- when in the immediate area of a grease product, it is liable to explode.

Sorry but you're on the wrong track lord molly.

Solidox pellets are normally used to generate oxygen for oxyacetylene torches. A pellet of Solidox is normally burnt to produce a stream of oxygen which is fed to the special Solidox torch.

The principal component of Solidox pellets is Sodium Chlorate which is a powerful oxidising agent.

Nevertheless Solidox pellets are in no way related to solid oxygen -it's just a brand name which reflects their function.

Hi Folks,


You can handle liqid O2 in thermos flask (open top). It is not explosixe, but may result in explosive mixtures. Can be codenced from air fairly easily.


Certainly dangerous in the hands of someone who doesnt know what they are doing.

my 14 yaer old friend would like to send a cow into space and needs some LOX to get it there. where can i get iut from in australia?

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