Hydrogen peroxide, or hydrogen dioxide.

[H2SO4]

Why do they call hydrogen peroxide hydrogen peroxide. Shouldnt it be called hydrogen dioxide. My only guess is that it is called this because there are also two hydrogens. I can see with sulfur dioxide SO2, because there is one sulfur. Two oxygens to one sulfur, hence "sulfur Dioxide". But this means that water would be Hydrogen Dioxide instead of hydrogen oxide.

 

Is there just some type of exception with hydrogen that makes it have these wierd names, or am i just trippin.

[Skye]

Because it has an empirical formula of HO.

[YT2095]

it COULD be called Dihydrogen Dioxide, just like water COULD be called Dihydrogen Monoxide, but it`s a bit of a mouthful

[ed84c]

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2880&highlight=hydrogen+peroxide

[budullewraagh]

it's hydrogen peroxide because it has the peroxide bond

[MulderMan]

does anyone know the propper IUPAC name for it? or is it just hydrogen peroxide?

[budullewraagh]

it's hydrogen peroxide

[MulderMan]

right, i always get mixed up between all the different names. is there a instruction book/list or something on how to give "propper" IUPAC names to chems?

[jdurg]

Another way to look at it is in terms of oxidation numbers. In water, oxygen has an oxidation number of -2 so it gets the name 'oxide'. The technical name for water is dihydrogen monoxide, but in reality 'hydrogen oxide' would work just fine since oxide denotes oxygen in a -2 state and in order to balance it out you would need two hydrogen atoms..

 

In hydrogen peroxide, the oxygen atoms have an oxidation number of -1, therefore it gets the designation 'peroxide'. In order to balance out the charge, you need two hydrogen atoms so you get the formula H2O2 and the name hydrogen peroxide.

[The Thing]

Because peroxide has an oxidation state of -2, meaning that each oxygen has a valence of -1. In dioxide, each oxygen has a valence of -2.

[jdurg]

Hydrogen peroxide is most certainly not an ionic compound. Whomever told you that it was is incorrect. The reason it's not called dihydrogen peroxide is because there is absolutely no need to do that since the only way to combine the hydrogen and a peroxide is in the form of H2O2.

 

It's called 'peroxide' because the term 'per' means 'more than one' and this particular "oxide" is composed of more than one oxygen atom. Dioxide would mean 'two oxides' due to the 'di' prefix.

[YT2095]

IIRC Hydrogen in these instances can be treated like a Metal in much of the naming conventions, like Hydrogen Sulphate (Sulphuric acid).

 

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember learning something like this way back in the mists of time