In chemistry, subhalide usually refers to

inorganic compound In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemi ...

s that have a low ratio of

halide In chemistry, a halide (rarely halogenide) is a binary chemical compound, of which one part is a halogen atom and the other part is an element or radical that is less electronegative (or more electropositive) than the halogen, to make a f ...

to metal, made possible by metal–metal bonding (or element–element bonding for nonmetals), sometimes extensive. Many compounds meet this definition.

Examples

The normal halide of boron is . Boron forms many subhalides: several , including ; also BF. Aluminium forms a variety of subhalides. For gallium,

adduct An adduct (from the Latin ''adductus'', "drawn toward" alternatively, a contraction of "addition product") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all co ...

s of are known. Phosphorus subhalides include , , and (structurally related to ). For bismuth, the compound originally described as bismuth monochloride was later shown to consist of clusters and

chloride The chloride ion is the anion (negatively charged ion) Cl−. It is formed when the element chlorine (a halogen) gains an electron or when a compound such as hydrogen chloride is dissolved in water or other polar solvents. Chloride s ...

anions. There are many tellurium subhalides, including , (X = Cl, Br, I), and two forms of TeI.Zhengtao Xu "Recent Developments in Binary Halogen–Chalcogen Compounds, Polyanions and Polycations" in Handbook of Chalcogen Chemistry: New Perspectives in Sulfur, Selenium and Tellurium, Francesco Devillanova, Editor, 2006, RSC. pp. 381-416. Royal Society

References

{{Reflist Inorganic compounds