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Hydrogen polyoxides are chemical compounds that consist only of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, are bonded exclusively by single bonds , and are acyclic. They can, therefore, be classed as hydrogen chalcogenides.
The simplest possible stable hydrogen polyoxide is water, H2O. The general structure of the class of molecules is some number of oxygen atoms single-bonded to each other in a chain. The oxygen atom at each end of this oxygen skeleton is attached to a hydrogen atom. Thus, these compounds form a homologous series with chemical formula H2On in which the members differ by a constant relative molecular mass of 16. The number of oxygen atoms is used to define the size of the hydrogen polyoxide.
An oxidanyl group is a functional group or side-chain analog of hydrogen polyoxide that is attached to some structure other than just a hydrogen atom. Examples include the hydroxy and hydroperoxy groups.