The acid oxides, also called non-metallic oxides or anhydrides, arise from the combination of a nonmetal with oxygen. Since the electronegativity difference between these elements is low, the unions that form between them are covalent.
When reacting with water, these compounds form oxacid acids, but if they are in the presence of hydroxides, what is formed is a salt and water. Several of these compounds are gaseous substances.
As he Boiling point of these compounds such as fusion they are usually low. Acidic oxides or anhydrides obey the generic formula X2ORn, where the X represents some non-metallic element.
Acidic oxides are quite used in industry for different purposes. For example, carbon dioxide is used in the production of carbonated beverages. Also some acid oxides are toxic, like carbon monoxide, which has caused so many deaths associated with the use of incompletely combustion stoves in closed environments.
Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are also toxic, often causing the depletion of the ozone layer. Titanium oxide, for its part, is of great importance as pigment, gives white color.
See also: Examples of Non-Metallic Oxides
Like what happens in other groups of inorganic compounds, three different modalities coexist in the designation of acid oxides:
- The traditional nomenclature:They are called with the word anhydride followed by the name of the non-metallic element, to which the corresponding termination is added according to the oxidation state with which the non-metal intervenes in the molecule.
- The Stock nomenclature: They are designated by the word oxide followed by the name of the non-metallic element, and then the oxidation state in which the non-metal participates is indicated in parentheses and in Roman numerals.
- The systematic nomenclature:They are designated by the word "oxide" preceded by a Latin prefix that depends on the number of oxygen atoms, followed by the preposition "of" and then the name of the nonmetal, this in turn preceded by the Latin prefix that indicates the number of atoms of that nonmetal in the molecule. For the same metal there can be different acid oxides.
- dichloro oxide
- arsenic (III) oxide
- hyposulfurous anhydride
- phosphorus (III) oxide
- carbon dioxide
- titanium oxide
- silicic anhydride
- nitrogen oxide (V)
- perchloric oxide
- manganese (VI) oxide
- manganese (VII) oxide
- dinitrogen trioxide
- chlorous anhydride
- chromic oxide
- boric oxide
- bromous oxide
- sulfurous oxide
- tellurium oxide
- selenium (VI) oxide
- hypoiodine anhydride
