PTCL Safety Glossary: Cryogenic

A Cryogenic material is one held at very low temperatures. A cryogenic liquid with which many people are familiar is liquid nitrogen but other materials are also widely used in science as cryogenic liquids, including liquid oxygen and liquid helium (the latter is often used to cool large superconducting magnets).

Low temperatures are useful in science for many reasons; not only do most chemical reactions proceed more slowly as the temperature is lowered (are therefore become easier to study), but many properties of materials are temperature-dependent, so studies as a function of temperature may reveal interesting information about bonding and structure.

Return to the Safety Glossary.
Return to the Safety Home Page of the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University.