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Why does oxygen not condense onto open dewers of liquid nitrogen?


Why does oxygen not condense onto open dewers of liquid nitrogen?

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1 Answers

Komal
askIITians Faculty 747 Points
8 years ago
If you look at thevapour pressure graph for oxygenyou’ll see that at its partial pressure in air, it can only liquefy below about 77K, which by coincidence is the temperature of boiling liquid nitrogen. The air immediately above the liquid nitrogen / air interface cannot be any colder than that 77K (slightly less, because nitrogen is only 4/5ths of the air), so the 1/5th that is oxygen cannot actually condense – itdoesn’t get cold enough. Adding to that is the fact that the evaporating nitrogen further dilutes the oxygen that is present, further lowering the temperature that would be needed to condense oxygen at that pressure.

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