I’m a retired physicist, but I remember (over 60 years ago) the chemistry master telling us that ozone had NO smell. What happened in the nasal passage was that, since ozone was an extremely powerful oxidising agent, the smell detected was that of various organic compounds and biological material (mucous, blood, etc.) being rapidly oxidised, or in layman’s terms ‘burnt’. Obviously, if you were dumb enough to be in a room where ozone was somehow being produced, without you wearing protective breathing apparatus (I think you would be beyond dumb), you would smell your own demise, as your nasal passage, throat, larynx and lungs oxidised. I believe ozone does have a use in its fantastic ability to destroy bacteria and other pathogens, and almost completely sanitise, for example, the interior of an aircraft.
3 months ago
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Finally a question a Chemical Engineer can safely answer 😂
3 months ago
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Large enough quantities of liquid ozone are actually explosive simply because of how badly it wants to eject that third oxygen. That now free-floating oxygen will gleefully pull any third oxygen atom off another ozone to form O2, and the process of converting 2 Ozone to 3 O2 releases energy that can cause other Ozone molecules to decompose. This is why (in addition to the chemical reactivity that is beaten only by fluorine or certain fluorinated compounds in voraciousness), even though liquid ozone is a more performant oxidizer than liquid oxygen, is not used in rocketry where every little bit counts.
3 months ago
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When I was a camp counselor at a Girl Scout camp there was this massive lightning storm. It was right on top of us and started in the middle of the night (1-3am? We weren’t allowed cell phones so no one knew what time it was) It was so loud my ears were ringing! I remember the ozone smell, it smelled just like the sulfurous well water but hot/burnt. Eventually we all fell asleep again as it receded and the next morning was a bit like a midsummer night’s dream. We were only sure it had happened because of fallen trees and the fact everyone else remembered parts of it. Florida’s summer storms and native pine trees make for some unique camp memories.
3 months ago
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The original office laser printers produced a LOT of ozone in the fuser (the hot thingy that melts the powdered plastic onto the page). Dunno about the original Canon engines, but the HP II series had an activated carbon filter at the cooling fan housing to prevent the release of ozone into your office air. Fusers improved later, and they all quit using those filters. But they still produced some ozone you can smell if you're sat next to one. Hint: refuse the desk next to the office copier.
3 months ago
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Finally, years of hard work getting a masters in chemistry paid off!
3 months ago
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Thanks to Clive for featuring O3 air purifiers. A workmate asked me to look after her pet rodent for a fortnight, afterwards the room smellled fairly bad, but a couple of days with an air purifier and it was back to normal- thanks for the advice.
3 months ago
| 0
Ozone - the best example of "two is company, three is a crowd" in terms of oxidising capacity. Down Under, there's a growing interest in using ozonisers to maintain domestic pool water sanitation.
3 months ago
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That's why I concentrate and inhale ozone, it's 50% more efficient than regular oxygen
3 months ago
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Who else remembers when McCoy gave Captain Kirk a "Triox injection" to help him fight Spock on Vulcan due to it's thin atmosphere? As a kid I had no idea how ridiculous that was.
3 months ago
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Ozone also dissolves readily in liquid oxygen, for those times when there's not enough oxygen in your oxygen.
3 months ago
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College study to inorganic chemistry. Then electrical engineering to junior in college. Hobby electronics since around 1968.
3 months ago
| 1
I may not know much about chemistry, but I could go toe to toe on bird law.
3 months ago
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bigclivedotcom
How many atoms of oxygen are in a molecule of ozone?
3 months ago | [YT] | 684