20 Examples of Basic Oxides

The basic oxides, also known as metal oxides, are those that combine oxygen with a metal element. Since oxygen is very electronegative and metals are electropositive, the bond that is established is ionic. For example: dialuminium trioxide (Al₂OR₃), permanganic oxide (Mn₂OR₇), zinc oxide (ZnO).

The General Formula representing all basic oxides is XO, where X is the metallic element and O the oxygen. Each one of these atoms it can be followed by subscripts (generally 2 or 3), which appear by exchanging the valences (that is, that of metal with that of oxygen). The valence of oxygen when it is part of oxides is almost always -2.

Nomenclature of basic oxides

Traditional nomenclature

Basic oxides are named by first mentioning the term "oxide of" and then the name of the metallic element, or "oxide." followed by an adjective (which is the name of the metallic element with different endings), as detailed below continuation:

Nomenclature of Stock

Under this nomenclature, oxides are written and named as "

oxide of”+ Metallic element + Roman numeral in parentheses, which indicates the valence with which the metallic element is interacting with oxygen. But if the metallic element has only one valence, this is not indicated in the name of the oxide. For example: Nickel (II) oxide: NiO / Nickel (III) oxide: Ni₂OR₃ / magnesium oxide: MgO

Systematic nomenclature

This nomenclature is currently the recommended by IUPAC(International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry). The concept of naming basic oxides as “oxides of” is maintained, but is done precisely by adding the standard prefix Greek that corresponds to the number of oxygen atoms (to the word “oxide”) and to the number of atoms of the metal (to the name of the metal) it contains each molecule, using the preposition "of" as a bridge. The prefixes are: mono (1 atom), di (2 atoms), tri (3 atoms), tetra (4 atoms), penta (5 atoms), and so on. For example: disodium monoxide: Na₂O / Nickel Monoxide: NiO / Diiron Trioxide: Fe₂OR₃

Basic oxides have countless uses in the pharmaceutical, paint, construction materials, plastics and other industries.

Examples of basic oxides

Other types of oxides: