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.

---

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

---

Example Sentences

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

CINNOLIN, C8H6N2, a compound isomeric with phthalazine, prepared by boiling dihydrocinnolin dissolved in benzene with freshly precipitated mercuric oxide.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 4 "Cincinnatus" to "Cleruchy" by Various

Those not containing a nitro group may be prepared by the oxidation of the corresponding mixed hydrazo compounds with mercuric oxide.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" by Various

In a former chapter it was shown that mercuric oxide decomposes when heated to form mercury and oxygen.

From An Elementary Study of Chemistry by McPherson, William