by 
hisham
ANSWERS: 3
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The oxidant is oxygen bound to an element which keeps it stable until it is broken and frees the oxygen. Usually the reaction that frees the oxygen is the one that uses the oxygen to make another compound, so the oxygen is not "free" for long. the energy required to release the oxygen would not be redelivered in quantity by combustion to redeliver to break another oxidant apart. the reaction is endothermic, requiring more energy to release than to combine, so the fire which is exothermic would starve from energy loss trying to release the O2..... Clear as mud ???
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Sometimes nitrous oxide (N2O) is used (as in race car engines) because it supports combustion better than oxygen.
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Actually Nitrous oxide N2O is used instead of air in order to increase the amount of available O for combustion from 20.95% in air to more than 30% O2 in a nitrous only mix. the increase in O2 for combustion allows for a richer fuel mix and therefore a bigger bang. the added O2 allows for more combustion, not easier combustion. Still, N2O is effective because of the combustion chamber conditions ( compression and heat ) and would be a different story in normal conditions. As an oxidant it would be too expensive to promote a fire, and if it were to be used, an oxygen rich fire is a monster indeed. It is a rhetorical question since a cylinder of O2 is more concentrated by volume than N2O so why bother to substitute it? Divers use a Helium O2 mixture to dive deep because the He molecules do not give the diver the bends like Nitrogen air mix would. adding an aditive to O2 in the general sense to become an oxidant would be useful in a non O2 environment, but what use to burn something there ? oh well.......
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