oxygenbearing

Oxygenbearing is an adjective describing materials or compounds that contain oxygen as a constituent element. In scientific usage, the more common spelling is oxygen-bearing (with a hyphen), though variations without a space may appear in datasets or older literature. The term is broadly descriptive rather than taxonomic and is often used when distinguishing oxygen-containing substances from those with little or no oxygen.

The concept is widely applied across disciplines. In geology and mineralogy, many minerals are oxygen-bearing, including oxides, silicates, carbonates, and sulfates. Common examples are quartz (SiO2), hematite (Fe2O3), and feldspars, which are silicate minerals with oxygen as a major component. Water (H2O) is a simple oxygen-bearing molecule, and many organic compounds are oxygen-bearing as well, such as alcohols (R-OH) and carbonyl-containing compounds (R-CO-R'). The term helps describe properties and formation processes linked to oxygen chemistry, such as oxidation states, oxide stability, and oxygen fugacity in rocks and magmas.

In planetary science and cosmochemistry, the detection of oxygen-bearing molecules in space (for example water, carbon dioxide, and metal oxides on rocky bodies) informs models of planetary formation and atmospheric evolution. The term remains a broad descriptor rather than a precise chemical category. For precise classification, scientists use terms such as oxide, silicate, carbonate, phosphate, or specific functional groups in organic chemistry.

Related terms include oxide, silicate, carbonate, phosphate, and oxide minerals.