How many compounds can Oxygen create?

Uranium Oxide: One of the rare compounds of Oxygen

The question that how may compounds Oxygen can make is almost impossible to find out. Suppose you have a periodic table, and you can see all the elements in it. Now try pairing up each of these elements with Oxygen and see if actually a compound like that exists. For example- suppose you choose calcium and pair it up with Oxygen, making a compound that may sound like Calcium-oxide. Now, if you research, you will find out that a compound like that actually exists. Almost all the elements in the periodic table can pair up with oxygen. Even the most rarest of element like Neodymium, can pair up with Oxygen and form the compound Neodymium sesquioxide or ND2O3. Oxygen can literally pair up with everything. That's one of the many unique characteristics of Oxygen.

Neodymium sesquioxide

Can Oxygen be harmful?

Did you ever think about Oxygen being harmful? Probably not. So, now I will reveal a very astonishing fact about Oxygen. Even though Oxygen is our daily necessity, it could be as harmful as helpful it is. Oxygen could be toxic at elevated partial pressures which could lead to convulsions or other health problems. In the past, premature babies were put into incubators containing enriched O2 air, but this practice was discontinued after some babies turned out to be blinded because of the excess Oxygen. Oxygen is a very sensitive gas. It must always be balanced in the atmosphere. Slight increase or decrease in the Oxygen level could turn out to be catastrophic in some situations. Oxygen toxicity could occur in the lungs or central nervous system in deep scuba diving and surface supplied diving. But we need not be worried about the toxicity of Oxygen in our day to day life as our atmospheric oxygen level is equally balanced.

Finale

Sadly, nothing goes on forever. and the same rule applies to me. Even if you like this blog a lot, I must stop now. Well, don't be sad. I may come back again, with a whole new topic, and whole new inspirations. But before I go, it would be a breach of manners to not mention the names of the websites that helped me write this awesome blog. So, lets look at the bibliography before we move on to a second blog.


Bibliography:
Oxygen. Wikipedia. Retrieved November 29, 2011. From www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oxygen

Whitmire, K. H. (2011). Oxygen. The New Book of Knowledge. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from Grolier Online http:-//nbk.grolier.com/ncpage?tn=/encyc/article.html&id=a2022170
h&type=0ta

Franzen, H. F. (2011). Oxygen. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0217370

Kornblum, Z. C. (2011). Oxygen. Encyclopedia Americana. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from Grolier Online http://ea.grolier.com/article?id=0299610-00