Talk:Arsenic trioxide

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NEEDS CITATIONS

citations needed for studies

Cleanup

I've tagged this article for cleanup, and considering it's rated B-class, I figure I'd better be specific as to why I think it needs cleaning up:

Structure is pretty sketchy and disorganized. It strikes me that the sections "Preparation", "Uses", "Medical applications", "Molecular structure" and "Chemical properties" should all be condensed into one or two sections.
Citations are light, for example in the Uses section.
Uses section should be a lot more specific
There should be more info on the use of this compound as a method of intentional poisoning

I hope that's helpful! —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 07:29, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Marked volatility of dimer

"In the liquid and gas phase below 800 °C, arsenic trioxide has the formula As4O6 and is isostructural with P4O6. Above 800 °C As4O6 significantly dissociates into molecular As2O3, which adopts the same structure as N2O3."

Molar mass of As4O6 is really high (about 395.682). Qoutient (sulblimation point in Kelvins / molar mass) is very low as a typical metalloid oxide (about 1,86, 738 / 395.862), even lower than the same quotient for carbon monoxide (82 K, 28.010 g/mol - quotient is about 2,92). For carbon dioxide and carbon suboxide that quotient is above 4. Carbon oxides are known for their volatility.

95.49.68.75 (talk) 11:12, 26 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Arsenic"

@Smokefoot: IMO the information that As203 is usually called "arsenic" by non-chemists needs to be prominently displayed in this article. Wiktionary (which I linked) defines "arsenic" as As2O3 (meaning 3). Detective stories never call it anything else. I corrected a bluelink today referring to the use of arsenic for killing flies - as a poison, not by hitting them with a lump of it.

At first sight, it looks as if many pages that link to "Arsenic" make the same mistake. Here's one, a notorious murder case: Frederick Seddon. Here's another: Mithridates VI of Pontus. Here's a third: Arsenic and Old Lace (play). I didn't search for those, I just looked up the first instances which came to mind.

Arsenious oxide and arsenic sesquioxide (names I grew up with) link to this page. IMO Arsenic (poison) should do so too. Narky Blert (talk) 23:45, 26 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

First of all thanks for taking the time to respond and not being too irate. Yes, I also know that people refer to arsenic compounds as simply "arsenic". I am with you there. But I did not see a way of inserting that hearsay into the article and I worried that trying to explain that situation would confuse many readers. Go ahead and revert my change. Maybe I am off base. It seems to me that chemistry is difficult enough without trying to correct misnomers. Cheers, --Smokefoot (talk) 02:34, 27 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, here are some further thoughts. The basis of confusion is that people refer to many materials by a prominent element in these materials. Doctors recommend that their patients take "iron" for anemia. They dont mean for their patients to gnaw on Fe metal, but to take some iron salts. People wear "gold jewelry", not really, their jewelry is almost always an alloy of gold. The list goes on and on. You might consider addressing this issue in the article on element.--Smokefoot (talk) 05:49, 27 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Pi shuang listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Pi shuang. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. _signed,Rosguill ^talk 17:30, 21 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation guide not standard?

I may be wrong, but it looks like the pronunciation section doesn't use IPA/English to transcribe itself? Is this the standard pronunciation guide for this kind of article? Ragamuffiln19 🜺 (talk) 16:49, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Chemical or medical?

As As2O3 is one of the basic chemical compounds of the element arsenic, I expect Wikipedia to have a chemical article on the subject. But this article seems to be primarily focused on its medical use - whatever the importance of that, it should not so much interfere that Wikipedia's serving as a chemical reference, including on this compound. It seems the medical information ought to be split into a different article, but that article already exists, so it would seem at most a brief mention (and a hatnote) are necessary on this article, which would be expected from the usual organization of chemistry-related articles to cover the chemical side. 2601:441:8500:B870:0:0:0:F1A7 (talk) 12:09, 28 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The article looks pretty well balanced with substantial content on structures and reactions vs the medical aspect. In Wikipedia, medical/health content is often emphasized, probably because less expertise is required to contributed such info and many readers/editors find human-oriented info more interesting. Please suggest a topic that merits discussion! --Smokefoot (talk) 16:12, 28 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I might agree with the balance, were it not for the fact that we have a (longer) separate article on the current medical use. This article should then be for the chemical properties, and other uses, as are other chemical articles; a hatnote can take care of the people that really wanted the medical page, as usual. In all the time I've read Wikipedia, I don't think I've ever encountered this on any other article about a simple inorganic compound (and maybe not an organic one either). As you noted, it would still have enough content if it were so restricted and not be a stub. Seeing the first half of the article devoted to medical use is surprising and distracting to anyone finding it as a chemical article. 73.228.195.198 (talk) 01:09, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is there some Wikipedia policy or guideline you're basing this on? There's countless chemical articles that discuss the practical and other uses of said chemical. Medical use is still a use, so falls under "and other uses". The medical info section amounts to about one-fifth of the content of the article, not 'half'.

Wikipedia is a general purpose/topic encyclopedia. It is not "a chemical reference". Please cite some policy, guideline, requirement, standard, that chemical articles conform to this structure that you present to be the right way it should be structured. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 02:12, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I did not say or imply this was a matter of policy, though thinking there might be a convention for chemistry articles. It was a suggestion. It is true that Wikipedia is not a 'chemical reference', however; people use it as one and many edits in chemical articles improve it for that use. It is the same with most technical fields, and if Wikipedia can improve it that way without removing other forms of utility, it's not unreasonable to suggest it should. That's not policy or the word of God, but it is a hopefully useful suggestion (or reminder). 2601:441:8500:B870:0:0:0:F1A7 (talk) 12:50, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Though I didn't ask for it, the recent edits by Smokefoot were an improvement. It should, however, not be necessary to replace my citation, as according to Wikipedia's pages, a bot should do it - writing a correctly formatted 'cite journal' template is tedious enough it should certainly be automated at some level, whether it's providing just a DOI, a bare URL, or something else.

However, I'd have to dispute that this compound is molecular As4O6 in the liquid phase - the vapor, yes, I can confirm that. But no source I've found says it true of the liquid, and it seems very unlikely. 2601:441:8500:B870:0:0:0:F1A7 (talk) 22:21, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Dear 2601:441:8500:B870:0:0:0:F1A7|2601:441:8500:B870:0:0:0:F1A7. Interesting point raises about the structure of the liquid state. I dont know either, but just to toy with the issue: *liquids tend to be molecular when they melt at mildish temps. Borderline case here.

polymers tend to break or crack at higher T's
P4O10, P4S10, P4O4, etc are probably worth reading up on. I recall that some form glasses.
behavior of liquid probably sensitive to traces of H2O (chain terminator)

Oh, BTW, I am going to remove the medical box to the medical article on As2O3.--Smokefoot (talk) 22:31, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I will try to get a good reference for the liquid's being polymeric - it is moderately glass-forming. The structure should be 3-dimensional like claudetite, not linear, and 3-dimensional polymers (like ordinary glass) are more resistant to temperature. The polymerization is not as dramatic as for P4O10, to be sure. 73.228.195.198 (talk) 12:08, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]