“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
Too much oxygen means that things we don’t normally think of as explosive or even flammable, things like metal, can burn or explode.
Stuff burns because it combines with oxygen. Normally, air is only 20% oxygen, and the more oxygen you provide, the easier and faster it burns.
If you use pure oxygen at high pressure, heavy oils that normally needs a flame to ignite and burn calmly, explode with only a little friction. Steel or brass, which we don’t think as flammable, ignites with only gentle heating.
And soaking something flammable in liquid oxygen turns it into an explosive. There is plenty of oxygen, and it is in close contact with the fuel – provide a source of ignition and the two will combine rapidly.
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