Iron(II) oxide
Encyclopedia
Iron oxide, also known as ferrous oxide, is one of the iron oxide
Iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. All together, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.Iron oxides and oxide-hydroxides are widespread in nature, play an important role in many geological and biological processes, and are widely utilized by humans, e.g.,...

s. It is a black-colored powder with the chemical formula . It consists of the chemical element
Chemical element
A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

 iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 in the oxidation state
Oxidation state
In chemistry, the oxidation state is an indicator of the degree of oxidation of an atom in a chemical compound. The formal oxidation state is the hypothetical charge that an atom would have if all bonds to atoms of different elements were 100% ionic. Oxidation states are typically represented by...

 of 2 bonded to oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

. Its mineral form is known as wüstite
Wüstite
Wüstite is a mineral form of iron oxide found with meteorites and native iron. It has a gray color with a greenish tint in reflected light. Wüstite crystallizes in the isometric - hexoctahedral crystal system in opaque to translucent metallic grains. It has a Mohs hardness of 5 to 5.5 and a...

. Iron(II) oxide should not be confused with rust
Rust
Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture...

, which usually consists of hydrated iron(III) oxide
Iron(III) oxide
Iron oxide or ferric oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Fe2O3. It is one of the three main oxides of iron, the other two being iron oxide , which is rare, and iron oxide , which also occurs naturally as the mineral magnetite. As the mineral known as hematite, Fe2O3 is the main...

 (ferric oxide). The term may be used more loosely for a non-stoichiometric compound
Non-stoichiometric compound
Non-stoichiometric compounds are chemical compounds with an elemental composition that cannot be represented by a ratio of well-defined natural numbers, and therefore violate the law of definite proportions. Often, they are solids that contain crystallographic point defects, such as interstitial...

 as the ratio of the elements iron and oxygen can vary; samples are typically iron deficient with compositions ranging from Fe0.84O to Fe0.95O.

Preparation

FeO can be prepared by heating iron(II) oxalate
Iron(II) oxalate
Ferrous oxalate, or iron oxalate, is a chemical compound consisting of one iron ion and one oxalate ion . It has the chemical formula Fe[C2O4]....

 in vacuo:
FeC2O4 FeO + CO + CO2

Stoichiometric FeO can be prepared by heating Fe0.95O with metallic iron at 770 °C and 36 kbar.

Reactions

FeO is thermodynamically unstable below 575 °C, disproportionating to metal and Fe3O4
Iron(II,III) oxide
Iron oxide is the chemical compound with formula Fe3O4. It is one of a number of iron oxides, the others being iron oxide , which is rare, and iron oxide also known as hematite. It occurs in nature as the mineral magnetite. It contains both Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions and is sometimes formulated as FeO ∙...

:
4FeO Fe + Fe3O4

Structure

Iron(II) oxide adopts the cubic, rock salt
Sodium chloride
Sodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt or halite, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of the ocean and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms...

 structure, where iron atoms are octahedrally coordinated by oxygen atoms and the oxygen atoms octahedrally coordinated by iron atoms. The non-stoichiometry occurs because of the ease of oxidation of FeII to FeIII effectively replacing a small portion of FeII with two thirds their number of FeIII, which take up tetrahedral positions in the close packed oxide lattice.

Below 200 K there is a minor change to the structure which changes the symmetry to rhombohedral and samples become antiferromagnetic
Antiferromagnetism
In materials that exhibit antiferromagnetism, the magnetic moments of atoms or molecules, usuallyrelated to the spins of electrons, align in a regular pattern with neighboring spins pointing in opposite directions. This is, like ferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism, a manifestation of ordered magnetism...

.

Uses

Iron(II) oxide is used as a pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...

. It is FDA
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

-approved for use in cosmetics and it is used in some tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...

inks.
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