Exactly as the title asks.

Pure oxygen is generally represented as O2 yet oxygen is an element of the periodic table. Why is it O2 and not just O?

  • Mirodir@lemmy.fmhy.net
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    10 months ago

    Small addition: I wouldn’t call O3 (Ozone) charged. It “only” has some partial charge like water (H2O) does, but overall it has the same number of protons and electrons.

    Now you could have ozonide (O3-), but that’s definitely a way more rare case.

    • lunarul@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, I was too lazy to find a better description for it and didn’t want to go into valences