= Carbon monoxide
{title2=$\mathrm{CO}$}
{wiki}
<Carbon monoxide> is the diatomic compound $\mathrm{CO}$. Its strong carbon-oxygen bond and carbon-centered donor interaction make it an important ligand in <metal carbonyls>.
Its bonding to metal centers involves both donation from carbon monoxide and back-donation into its antibonding orbitals. This changes the carbon-oxygen stretching frequency, making infrared spectra a useful probe of a complex's electronic structure. Carbon monoxide is chemically distinct from <carbon dioxide>, despite containing the same two elements.
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