What is "bismuthyl"

Bismuthyl \Bis"muth*yl`\, n. (Min.) Hydrous carbonate of bismuth, an earthy mineral of a dull white or yellowish color. [Written also bismuthite.]

n. (context chemistry English) Any tartrate in the form of a univalent radical, wherein only one replaceable hydrogen atom has been replaced by a base, causing it to have twice the amount of acid contained in a normal salt.

Bismuthyl means a chemical species formally derived from the element bismuth and can refer to substituents bonded to the rest of a molecule through a bismuth atom, including:

• derivatives of bismuthanes, BiR, such as the diphenylbismuthyl group, PhBi–, found in the ion [PhBi−(Ge)−BiPh]
• trivalent bismuth species when considered as ligands, such as the tribromobismuthyl ligand, BrBi→

In inorganic chemistry bismuthyl has been used to describe compounds such as BiOCl which were assumed to contain the diatomic bismuthyl, BiO, cation, that was also presumed to exist in aqueous solution. This diatomic ion is not now believed to exist.