Question

Which of the following is a suboxide?
A. $B{a_2}O$
B. $P{b_2}O$
C. ${C_3}{O_2}$
D. ZnO

Answer 1

Hint: Suboxides are a class of oxides wherein the electropositive element is in excess relative to the normal oxides. It refers to the oxide of an element that contains the smallest portion of oxygen. When the electropositive element is a metal, the compounds are sometimes referred to as metal rich compounds.

Complete step by step answer:
Suboxide refers to the oxide of the element that contains the smallest portion of oxygen. Therefore, among the given options, ${C_3}{O_2}$ forms a sub oxide.
Carbon sulphide or tricarbon dioxide is an oxide of carbon with the chemical formula ${C_3}{O_2}$ or $O = C = C = C = O$ . Moreover, it is one of the most stable members of the series of linear Oxo carbons $0 = {C_n} = O$ , which also includes carbon dioxide and pentacarbon dioxide.
Its structure is as shown:

The substance was discovered in $1873$by Benjamin Brodie by subjecting carbon monoxide to an electric current. He claimed that the product was a part of “oxycarbons” with formulas ${C_{X + 1}}{O_X}$ namely ${C_2}O,{C_3}{O_{2,}}{C_4}{O_{3,}}{C_5}{O_4}$ .

Hence, Option C is correct.

Note: In 1891, Marcellin Berthelot observed that heating pure carbon monoxide at about ${550^ \circ }C$ , created small amounts of carbon dioxide but no trace of carbon was found and assumed that carbon rich oxide was created instead, which he named as “sub-oxide”.