Question

What is the meaning of nascent oxygen?

Answer 1

Hint: Nascent oxygen is a form of oxygen when the atomic number is 8 and mass is 16 grams/mol. The reactivity of nascent oxygen is very high than the reactivity of oxygen gas and it is very unstable.

Complete answer:
Oxygen is the element of p-block as its group number is 16 and period number 2, so its atomic number is 8 and its mass number is 16 gram/ mol. There are three forms of oxygen in the universe, i.e., mono-atomic form, di-atomic form, and triatomic. The mono-atomic form of oxygen is known as nascent oxygen, a di-atomic form of oxygen is known as oxygen gas, and a triatomic form of oxygen is known as ozone.
So, the mono-atomic form of oxygen which is represented as [O] is called the nascent oxygen. The reactivity of nascent oxygen is very high than the reactivity of oxygen gas and it is very unstable.
When one nascent oxygen atom reacts with another nascent oxygen atom then there is the formation of oxygen gas and this reaction occurs very readily. The reaction is given below:
$[O]+[O]\to {{O}_{2}}$
Nascent oxygen is produced by a strong oxidizing agent like potassium permanganate and potassium dichromate. When these strong oxidizing agents react with ethanol then there is the formation of nascent oxygen.
It reacts with a huge number of atoms and molecules.

Note:
Since the stability of nascent oxygen is very low and it can react with a huge number of molecules, even DNA also. This reactivity of nascent oxygen with DNA causes mutation and can cause many diseases.