Oxygen atom has the tendency to form multiple bonds (pπ – pπ interaction) with other oxygen atom on account of small size while thistendency is missing in sulphur atom. The bond energy of oxygen-oxygendouble bond (O=O) is quite large (about three times that of oxygen-oxygen single bond, O – O = 34.9 kcal mol‌–1) while sulphur-sulphur doublebond (S=S) is not so large (less than double of sulphur-sulphur singlebond, S–S = 63.8 kcal mol‌–1). As a result, —O—O—O— chains are lessstable as compared to O=O molecule while —S—S—S— chains are morestable than S=S molecule. Therefore, at room temperature, while oxygenexists as a diatomic gas molecule, sulphur exists as S‌8 solid.