What is a #"subvalent oxide"#? Can you give an example?

1 Answer
anor277
May 12, 2017

Is an oxide whose defining element has mixed oxidation states, i.e. it is not fully oxidized..........and are sometimes non-stoichiometric.

Explanation:

A suboxide of carbon found in flames is carbon suboxide, #C_3O_2#, where the carbon oxidation states are #O=stackrel(+II)C=stackrel(0)C=C=O#, where the average carbon oxidation number is #+4/3#, but the individual oxidation states are clearly #stackrel(0)C#, and #stackrel(+II)C#. An even better example of a subvalent oxide is carbon monoxide itself, which features a formal #C(+II)# carbon oxidation state.

On the other hand, for non-suboxide carbon oxides, #CO_2# and #CBr_4#, each carbon has the same oxidation state, which are?

Related questions
See all questions in Compounds
Impact of this question
1973 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License