Main group peroxides are peroxide derivatives of the

main group element In chemistry and atomic physics, the main group is the group of elements (sometimes called the representative elements) whose lightest members are represented by helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine as arrange ...

s. Many compounds of the main group elements form peroxides, and a few are of commercial significance.

Examples

With thousands of tons/year being produced annually, the

peroxydisulfate The peroxydisulfate ion, , is an oxyanion, the anion of peroxydisulfuric acid. It is commonly referred to as persulfate, but this term also refers to the peroxomonosulfate ion, . It is also called ''peroxodisulfate''. Approximately 500,000 tons of ...

s, , are preeminent members of this class. These salts serve as

initiator An initiator can refer to: * A person who instigates something. * Modulated neutron initiator, a neutron source used in some nuclear weapons ** Initiator, an Explosive booster ** Initiator, the first Nuclear chain reaction * Pyrotechnic initiato ...

s for

polymerization In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer, monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are ...

acrylate Acrylates (IUPAC: prop-2-enoates) are the salts, esters, and conjugate bases of acrylic acid. The acrylate ion is the anion C H2=CHC OO−. Often, acrylate refers to esters of acrylic acid, the most common member being methyl acrylate. These acry ...

s and

styrene Styrene () is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH=CH2. This derivative of benzene is a colorless oily liquid, although aged samples can appear yellowish. The compound evaporates easily and has a sweet smell, although high concen ...

. At one time, peroxyborates were used in detergents. These salts have been largely replaced by

peroxycarbonate In chemistry, peroxycarbonate (sometimes peroxocarbonate) or percarbonate is a divalent anion with formula . It is an oxocarbon anion that consists solely of carbon and oxygen. It would be the anion of a hypothetical peroxocarbonic acid HO–CO� ...

s. Many peroxides are not commercially valuable but are of academic interest. One example is

bis(trimethylsilyl) peroxide Bis(trimethylsilyl)peroxide (sometimes abbreviated as BTSP) is an organosilicon compound with the formula ((CH3)3SiO)2. It is a colorless liquid that is soluble in organic solvents so long as they lack acidic groups. The compound represents an a ...

(Me₃SiOOSiMe₃). Phosphorus oxides form a number of peroxides, e.g. "P₂O₆".{{Greenwood&Earnshaw2nd

References

Peroxides