Magnesium oxide Magnesium oxide Magnesium oxide (MgO), or magnesia, is a white hygroscopic solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of magnesium (see also oxide). It has an empirical formula of and consists of a lattice of Mg ions and O ions held together by ionic bonding. Magnesium hydroxide forms in the presence of water (MgO + HO → Mg(OH)), but it can be reversed by heating it to separate moisture. Magnesium oxide was historically known as magnesia alba (literally, the white mineral from magnesia – other sources give magnesia alba as MgCO), to differentiate it from "magnesia
Dihydrogen complex separations > 1 Å are better described as dihydride complexes (see figure). The usual method for characterization is H NMR spectroscopy. The magnitude of spin-spin coupling, "J", is a useful indicator of the strength of the bond between the hydrogen and deuterium in HD complexes. For example, "J" is 43.2 Hz in HD but 33.5 Hz in W(HD)(CO)(PPr). Dihydrogen complexes typically have shorter H-spin-lattice relaxation times than the corresponding dihydrides. An ideal if nontrivial method of characterization of dihydrogen complexes is neutron diffraction. Neutrons interact strongly with hydrogen atoms, which allows one to infer their location in a crystal. In