Lead dioxide, also lead(IV) oxide or plumbic oxide, is an oxide of lead (PbO2) in oxidation state +4. It is an odorless dark-brown crystalline powder which is nearly insoluble in water. It exists in two crystalline forms. The alpha phase has orthorhombic symmetry; it has been first synthesized in 1941 and identified in nature as a rare mineral scrutinyite in 1988. On the contrary, the more prevailing, tetragonal beta phase was first identified as the mineral plattnerite around 1845 and later produced synthetically. Lead dioxide is a strong oxidizing agent which is used in the manufacture of matches, pyrotechnics, dyes and other chemicals. It also has several important applications in electrochemistry, in particular as a component of lead acid batteries.
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“Methods of thought which claim to give the lead to our world in the name of revolution have become, in reality, ideologies of consent and not of rebellion.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)