In chemistry, subhalide usually refers to inorganic compound

Inorganic compound

Inorganic compounds have traditionally been considered to be of inanimate, non-biological origin. In contrast, organic compounds have an explicit biological origin. However, over the past century, the classification of inorganic vs organic compounds has become less important to scientists,...

s where the halide/metal ratio requires metal-metal (or element-element for nonmetals) bonding, sometimes extensively. Many compounds meet this definition.

Examples

Boron forms many subhalides, starting with B₂X₄, a representative member being diboron tetrafluoride

Diboron tetrafluoride

Diboron tetrafluoride is a colorless gas. It can be formed by reacting boron monofluoride with boron trifluoride at low temperatures, taking care not to form higher polymers.-External links:*...

. Aluminium forms a variety of subhalides. For gallium, adduct

Adduct

An adduct is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all components. The resultant is considered a distinct molecular species...

s of Ga₂Cl₄ are known. Phosphorus subchlorides include P₄Cl₂ and P₇Cl₃ (structurally related to P₇^3-). For bismuth, the compound originally described as bismuth monochloride was later shown to consists of Bi₉⁵⁺ clusters with chloride

Chloride

The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine, a halogen, picks up one electron to form an anion Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and can also be called chlorides. The chloride ion, and its salts such as sodium chloride, are very soluble in water...

 anions.Telluriium subhalides are particularly extensive and include the following members Te₃Cl₂, Te₂X (X = Cl, Br, I), and two forms of TeI.