mercuric oxide

American  

noun

Chemistry.

1. a slightly crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous compound, HgO, occurring as a coarse, orange-red powder red mercuric oxide or as a fine, orange-yellow powder yellow mercuric oxide: used chiefly as a pigment in paints and as an antiseptic in pharmaceuticals.

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mercuric oxide British  

noun

1. Systematic name: mercury(II) oxide.  a soluble poisonous substance existing in red and yellow powdered forms: used as pigments. Formula: HgO

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mercuric oxide

Joseph Priestley first prepared pure oxygen by heating mercuric oxide, HgO:

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

Thus, when he found that a candle burned more brightly, and mice thrived, in the atmosphere created with his container of heated mercuric oxide, he thought this atmosphere was "dephlogisticated air."

From Time Magazine Archive

Precipitated calcium carbonate may be used in place of the mercuric oxide, or a hypochlorite may be decomposed by a dilute mineral acid and the resulting solution distilled.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various

The equation representing the decomposition of mercuric oxide is HgO = Hg + O. The relative weights of the mercury and oxygen atoms are respectively 200 and 16.

From An Elementary Study of Chemistry by McPherson, William

HgO will in this way represent mercuric oxide, a molecule of which has been found to contain 1 atom each of mercury and oxygen.

From An Elementary Study of Chemistry by McPherson, William