Allotropes of oxygen
There are several known allotropes of oxygen. The most familiar is molecular oxygen (O2), present at significant levels in Earth's atmosphere and also known as dioxygen or triplet oxygen. Another is the highly reactive ozone (O3). Others are:
- Atomic oxygen (O1), a free radical.
- Singlet oxygen (O*
2), one of two metastable states of molecular oxygen. - Tetraoxygen (O4), another metastable form.
- Solid oxygen, existing in six variously colored phases, of which one is octaoxygen (O8, red oxygen) and another one metallic (ΞΆ-oxygen).
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