Examples include carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen monoxide (NO) and dihydrogen monoxide (H2O).

Carbon monoxide can be deadly for any oxygen-breathing animal, since it binds easier to the hemoglobin in your blood than oxygen. Worse, the bond is not easy to break, so the oxygen-carrying capacity of the red blood cells are permanently reduced. Evidently, large doses would render your blood useless and kill you.

Mo*nox"ide (?), n. [Mon- + oxide.] Chem.

An oxide containing one atom of oxygen in each molecule; as, barium monoxide.

 

© Webster 1913.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.