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

It may be here observed that no acetone can be detected in the distillate by means of the mercuric oxide test, and free bromine is also absent.

From Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise by Sanford, P. Gerald (Percy Gerald)

Various oxychlorides are formed by digesting corrosive sublimate with mercuric oxide.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 4 "Coquelin" to "Costume" 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