phosphorus
sulphur
carbon
chlorine
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The correct answer is D
don't forget that carbon can also react with oxygen to give CO2 which is acidic
myschool pls make corrections!
It's not Carbon but Chlorine according to Myschool Chemistry textbook page 373
Non metals like sulphur, carbon, ND phosphorus burn in oxygen to form acidic oxides.
CO2 is an acidic oxide, CO is neutral, since carbon are both involved, its not the answer
First, the question is talking about non-metals forming something called acidic oxides when they react with oxygen. That phrase alone can already feel like noise if nobody has explained it before, so let’s break it into something human.
When a non-metal burns in oxygen, it usually forms an oxide. Now, some of these oxides behave in a way that makes them acidic when they dissolve in water. That is what “acidic oxide” means. It is basically an oxide that can form an acid in water. For example, carbon dioxide becomes carbonic acid in water. That is why CO₂ is called an acidic oxide.
Now the question is asking for the odd one out. It says all these non-metals form acidic oxides with oxygen except one. So we are looking for the one that does not behave in that normal acidic-oxide pattern in the usual JAMB sense.
Let’s go through them one after the other in a calm way.
Carbon is probably the easiest starting point. When carbon burns in oxygen, it forms carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the important one here because when it dissolves in water, it forms carbonic acid. That is clearly acidic. So carbon fits perfectly into the group of non-metals that form acidic oxides.
Now sulphur. When sulphur burns in oxygen, it forms sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide. Both of these dissolve in water to form acids like sulphurous acid and sulphuric acid. So sulphur is also very clearly in the acidic oxide family. No confusion there.
Phosphorus also burns in oxygen to form phosphorus pentoxide. That one reacts with water to form phosphoric acid. Again, very straightforward acidic oxide behaviour.
So far, carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus are all behaving exactly the same way in this topic. They all form oxides that end up producing acids in water.
Now the tricky one is chlorine.
Chlorine is still a non-metal, yes. But when chlorine reacts with oxygen, it does not form a simple, straightforward oxide that behaves like carbon dioxide or sulphur dioxide. Instead, chlorine forms a group of compounds called chlorine oxides, like chlorine monoxide and chlorine heptoxide, and these are not commonly treated the same way in basic JAMB classification. More importantly, chlorine is already strongly associated with acids like hydrochloric acid, but its oxides are not the classic textbook “acidic oxides of non-metals” that you usually learn as a neat pattern.
In most JAMB contexts, chlorine is treated differently because its chemistry is more irregular compared to carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus, which follow a clean pattern of “burn in oxygen → form acidic oxide → dissolve in water → form acid”.
So what is really going on in the question is this. Three of the options are standard textbook examples of non-metals that form clear acidic oxides with oxygen, while one option is not typically grouped into that simple pattern.
That odd one out is chlorine.
So the correct answer is D, chlorine.
Carbon forms acidic oxides, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO), which can react with water to form weak acids (e.g., carbonic acid).
Chlorine, on the other hand, forms oxides like Cl₂O₇, Cl₂O₅, and ClO₂, which are acidic in nature.
Since both elements form acidic oxides, neither is a correct answer if you're looking for an element that does not form acidic oxides. However, if the question is asking which is less likely to form acidic oxides in comparison, carbon has both acidic and neutral oxides (CO is neutral), whereas chlorine primarily forms acidic oxides.
The correct answer is:
C. carbon
While carbon does form oxides like carbon dioxide (CO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO), CO is neutral, and CO₂ is weakly acidic, making it less strongly acidic compared to oxides of phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine.
Phosphorus oxides (e.g., P₄O₁₀) form strong acids like phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄).
Sulfur oxides (e.g., SO₂, SO₃) form sulfurous acid (H₂SO₃) and sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄).
Chlorine oxides (e.g., Cl₂O₇) form perchloric acid (HClO₄), a strong acid.
Thus, while carbon dioxide is weakly acidic, it is not as strongly acidic as the oxides of phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine.
An acidic oxide is an oxide that reacts with water to form an acidic solution. Non-metals have a greater tendency to form acidic oxides than metals. Therefore, among the given options, the non-metal that does not form an acidic oxide with oxygen would be the one that does not react with water to form an acidic solution.
From the options the most viable is chlorine.
option D
The correct answer is chlorine,I don't even think it react with oxygen in any form
Given the context, all options A, B, C, and D form oxides that can be considered acidic in nature when reacting with water. However, chlorine oxides are less straightforward in their acid-forming behavior compared to the direct acid formation from the oxides of phosphorus, sulphur, and carbon. Yet, considering typical expectations in basic chemistry, all these elements form oxides that can lead to acidic solutions. Without more specific context about the oxides or conditions, it's challenging, but chlorine might stand out due to its unique oxide chemistry.
The best answer is D.
it is obviously C cause carbon recat with oxygen with little amount of oxygen to form carbon monoxide (CO) while chlorine react with oxygen to form chlorine dioxide and other forms of acidic Oxide, chilirin doesn't recat with oxygen directly like CO but it still recat with oxygen to form acidic oxide while carbon react to form two oxide CO2 and CO, CO2 is acidic while CO is neutral
