CO ≠ CO₂
Adding another oxygen creates a different molecule.
Connectivity, electron count and chemistry all change.
Molecular compound · carbon oxide
Carbon monoxide
CO
Carbon monoxide is CO, a neutral diatomic molecule containing one carbon and one oxygen. Its bond is unusually strong, and a naive electronegativity-only picture does not capture the full electron distribution.
Safety context: CO is toxic because it disrupts oxygen transport after binding strongly to hemoglobin.
Essentials
With only two atoms, CO is necessarily linear.
There is no bond angle to define in a diatomic molecule.
Detail
Lewis bookkeeping commonly gives a triple bond with formal charges.
The formal-charge picture is useful for electron counting but is not a complete map of measured partial charge.
Subtle polarity
CO is a classic warning against an oversimplified electronegativity story.
Orbital contributions shape the small molecular dipole.
Understand
CO can be oxidized to carbon dioxide.
The balanced equation conserves atoms while the molecular connectivity changes.
Combustion
CO can form under incomplete combustion conditions.
Real combustion involves radical networks and transport effects.
Reference identifiers
Names and identifiers that pin down the chemical identity.
| Formula | CO |
|---|---|
| CAS Registry Number | 630-08-0 |
| PubChem CID | 281 |
Advanced
Push past the first model without losing the simple picture.
Why draw C⁻ and O⁺?
That Lewis contributor satisfies octets; formal charge is bookkeeping, not a measured charge map.
Why can CO bind metals?
It can donate electron density to a metal and accept back-donation into antibonding orbitals.
Is CO half a CO₂ molecule?
No. It is its own stable molecular species.
Constituent elements