Answer to Question #72510 in General Chemistry for Matthew Tandy

Question

My question is about molecule naming conventions. (H2O2) Hydrogen peroxide and (CO2) Carbon dioxide both have an equal number of oxygen atoms, why are the prefix's per-oxide and di-oxide used in each case? Thanks for reading and look forward to your response.

Answer 1

Answer:
CO2 is called dioxide, because it contains 2 molecules of oxide.
H2O2 is called peroxide because it has peroxide functional group is attached to a hydrogen atom.