Comments on: Generation M #5: A Medical Review

By: Philip

Philip — Mon, 08 May 2006 22:38:04 +0000

So each atom has a charge of -1/2 I guess.

Not really. They probably don’t tell you this unless you’re doing a full chemistry degree, but in reality *all* electrons in the outer orbitals of atoms bonded together in a molecule are shared to some degree between all the atoms, and the charge gets smeared out across the whole superoxide anion.

By: Kalinara

Kalinara — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:08:20 +0000

I think W’s right. If I recall the chemistry class I barely passed last semester, it has to do with the ioncharge. A normal oxide has a charge of -2. Since Oxygen’s normal state is O2, that means the charge would be -4. Peroxide’s also o2, but the charge is -2 for the whole thing. Each Oxygen atom has a charge of -1. A superoxide is even more positively charged,an O2 molecule has a total charge of -1. So each atom has a charge of -1/2 I guess.

I have no idea what this means in practical terms (barely passed means *barely passed*) but that’s what my text book said…

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 08 May 2006 04:08:24 +0000

Thanks, Zzedar, Philip.

I figured it was something like that. Links fixed too.

By: Zzedar

Zzedar — Mon, 08 May 2006 02:31:00 +0000

Incidentally, the “Lithium carbonate” link in the main post is broken.

By: Zzedar

Zzedar — Mon, 08 May 2006 02:05:52 +0000

Okay, I’ve done some research, and apparently I was wrong. When they talk about “lithium dioxide” batteries, they don’t mean that the batteries are based on lithium dioxide. They mean that the anode of a battery cell is metallic lithium, and the cathode is some dioxide, usually manganese.

By: W

Sun, 07 May 2006 17:26:30 +0000

I’ve always thought that for oxide, each oxygen has oxidation number -2, and for superoxide, it is O2 with the total oxidation number of the polyatomic ion being -1. And a peroxide is O2 with total oxidation number beig -2, or each oxygen is -1.

By: Philip

Philip — Sun, 07 May 2006 15:10:29 +0000

Zzedar’s right. Also, any kind of superoxide is a *very* powerful oxidising agent and really not something you want inside a human body.

By: lilacsigil

lilacsigil — Sun, 07 May 2006 03:51:22 +0000

They’re changing her batteries to restart her clock? Minnie does have a chronological problem…

By: Zzedar

Zzedar — Sun, 07 May 2006 00:26:18 +0000

My understanding (and I’m not a chemist, so take this with a grain of salt) is that “lithium dioxide” is an incorrect version of the name, used by battery advertisers who don’t want to explain what a superoxide is, and “superoxide” is the version used by chemists. You know, like “dihydrogen oxide” and “hydrogen hydroxide.”