“Too much oxygen things go boom” It means Oxygen can be used as fuel like a gas stove, or lighters, or that some mundane things like clothes/footwear can ignite from friction in a concentrated oxygen room?
In: Chemistry
Most of what we think of as explosions (other than nuclear) is the very rapid burning of some substance, which releases a lot of energy quickly resulting in expansion of the surrounding gases.
Burning (mostly, but not exclusively) consists of something combining with oxygen releasing heat energy. Normal atmosphere is about 20% oxygen and when we burn wood, lighter fluid, petrol (in car engines) we mostly rely on that 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen mix in air. In many cases the rate of burning is limited by the amount of oxygen available – which is why blowing air is useful when starting a campfire – you increase the amount of oxygen and remove the gaseous byproduct of burning which already consumed the available oxygen.
If you increase the oxygen concentration, then things burn faster – ie releases heat faster. So something that might burn in a controlled fashion in normal air, might burn so fast that it heats the surrounding air so quickly that a compression wave forms (and that is what makes an explosion)
But you need to understand that these things are a combination of something with oxygen. So both are needed. Pure oxygen with nothing else doesn’t burn or explode. Explosives are usually a mix of compound and one of the compound in the mix usually produces oxygen when heated. So an explosive provides both the fuel and the extra oxygen at the same time allowing it to burn so fast that it causes the explosion.
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