Oxophilicity

<p>Oxophilicity is the tendency of certain chemical compounds to form <a href="/facts/Oxide/DXtoVe1C">oxides</a> by <a href="/facts/Hydrolysis/JTvwIHPs">hydrolysis</a> or abstraction of an oxygen atom from another molecule, often from organic compounds. The term is often used to describe metal centers, commonly the early <a href="/facts/Transition_metal/0slGWoLQ">transition metals</a> such as <a href="/facts/Titanium/53ArnDoy">titanium</a>, <a href="/facts/Niobium/3zNI8AKp">niobium</a>, and <a href="/facts/Tungsten/WYwbNDYX">tungsten</a>. Oxophilicity is often stated to be related to the hardness of the element, within the <a href="/facts/HSAB_theory/yguwscxc">HSAB theory</a> (<a href="/facts/HSAB_theory/yguwscxc">hard and soft (Lewis) acids and bases</a>), but it has been shown that oxophilicity depends more on the electronegativity and effective nuclear charge of the element than on its hardness. This explains why the early transition metals, whose electronegativities and effective nuclear charges are low, are very oxophilic. Many <a href="/facts/Main_group_element/2AG3QxJl">main group</a> compounds are also oxophilic, such as derivatives of <a href="/facts/Aluminium/7wmR8jYE">aluminium</a>, <a href="/facts/Silicon/cgWx0hdr">silicon</a>, and <a href="/facts/Phosphorus/27xCeIqs">phosphorus</a>(III). The handling of oxophilic compounds often requires <a href="/facts/Air-free_technique/pEW9wY6e">air-free techniques</a>.
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Oxophilicity open-in-new

Oxophilicity