oxocarbon

In chemistry, an oxocarbon or oxide of carbon is a chemical compound consisting only of carbon and oxygen. The simplest and most common oxocarbons are carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (). Many other stable (practically if not thermodynamically) or metastable oxides of carbon are known, but they are rarely encountered, such as carbon suboxide ( or ) and mellitic anhydride (). {| border=0 cellborder=0 cellpadding=0 |- valign=middle | width="50" |   | align=center | 600x17px | width="20" |   | align=center | 600x17px | width="20" |   | align=center | 600x17px | width="20" |   | align=center | 600x115px |- | | align=center | COCarbonmonoxide | | align=center | Carbondioxide | | align=center | Carbonsuboxide | | align=center | Melliticanhydride |}

Many other oxides are known today, most of them synthesized since the 1960s. Some of these new oxides are stable at room temperature. Some are metastable or stable only at very low temperatures, but decompose to simpler oxocarbons when warmed. Many are inherently unstable and can be observed only momentarily as intermediates in chemical reactions or are so reactive that they exist only in gas phase or have only been detected by matrix isolation.