[Boogieman]

Maybe “they” are just non-binary.

[Bonemaker]

"Non binary compounds are those made up of either same elements such as O2, H2 etc or more than two different elements such as NH4Cl, H3PO4, etc. Mostly they are polyatomic compounds containing polyatomic (containing two or more atoms) ions such as OH-, NH4+, SO4-, CO32-, etc."