Can oxygen be broken down

Answer 1

Into single atoms of oxygen, or into a different element?

Both of them are doable, but with a couple problems.

You could split O2 into O with electrolysis. If you did that, the oxygen atoms would immediately reform into O2, so spending the energy to perform the electrolysis would be a waste.

Breaking oxygen into another element would require high-energy physics tools like a cyclotron. It'd be very expensive, you'd have to justify the project to the people who owned the accelerator (who would be using it already - there are far more projects that need accelerator time than there is accelerator time to use) and the elements people make in accelerators are usually radioactive.

Theoretically it's possible to do it. Is it practical? Not really.

Answer 2

No. There are no "wood atoms" because wood is not an element; it is a mixture of many elements of which carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are the most abundant. When wood burns the molecules get broken down but the atoms remain intact.

Answer 3

Oxygen is recycled all the time in nature by plants that take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Answer 4

Depends on what you mean by making. It can be extracted or released from another substance that already has it, but it can't be made out of nothing.

Answer 5

No, as it is an element. Elements are made up of only one type of atom and cannot be separated into anything simpler.

Answer 6

No oxygen can not be destroyed or turned into something else, but I think maybe scientists will come up with things that can do that.