Dihydrogen monoxide parody Dihydrogen monoxide parody The dihydrogen monoxide parody involves calling water by the unfamiliar chemical name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO), or "hydroxylic acid" in some cases, and listing some of water's well-known effects in a particularly alarming manner, such as accelerating corrosion and causing suffocation. The parody often calls for dihydrogen monoxide to be banned, regulated, and labeled as dangerous. It illustrates how a lack of scientific literacy and an exaggerated analysis can lead to misplaced fears. The parody gained renewed popularity in the late 1990s when a 14-year-old student, Nathan Zohner, collected anti-DHMO petitions for a science project about gullibility. The
Dihydrogen complex agostic interaction that is displaced by the H. In other cases, H will displace anionic ligands, sometimes even halides. Treatment of chlorobis(dppe)iron hydride with sodium tetrafluorborate under and atmostphere of hydrogen is one example: Many metal hydrides can be protonated to give dihydrogen complexes: In such cases the acid usually is derived from a weakly coordinating anion, e.g., Brookhart's acid. In 1984, Kubas et al. discovered that the addition of H to the purple-colored species M(CO)(PR) gave a yellow precipitate of mer-trans-M(CO)(PR)(H) (M = Mo or W; R = cyclohexyl, iso-propyl). This result rapidly led to the discovery of a