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When most people think of ozone, they picture a thin layer of gas high above the earth's outermost atmosphere that protects us from the sun's ultraviolet rays. But this bluish gas, which sometimes is described as that “fresh smell” after a thunderstorm, has a variety of down-to earth uses.
Ozone is a gas. And it's made of just one thing—oxygen.
"Ozone can be visualized as a regular O2 molecule with a very nervous, active, reactive, excitable, energetic, and lively O1 atom as a side kick. This monatomic O1 atom does not like to be alone, and near the earth's surface, it refuses to stay with the stable O2 double bond. It is active and reactive, with energy needing to be channeled in some useful direction. It will combine with virtually anything on contact, or at least will try. This active O1 will not stabilize until it can break away from the O2 and form a stable molecule with something else, virtually any other molecule that is available. If no other molecule is available, it will eventually unite with another O1 atom in the same situation, and restabilize as O2."
The preceding was adapted from an EPA paper on ozone in drinking water.
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