|
|
Nomenclature
- The Art of Naming Inorganic Compounds
-
- All contents are Copyright (©) 2003 International
Order of the Nitrogen and the author, unless otherwise noted, and may not be
used without their prior permission. If you wish to use any of the images or
text for any reason, please send a message to them using the contact form.
If the purpose is educational (i.e. school presentation or course lecture),
permission will most likely be granted freely.
-
|
Naming compounds. Sounds easy, but it can be quite complicated
at times. It is an important thing to know how to do. When you
are talking to someone about reactions, you don't say "In
this reaction, Cs combines with F2 to form CsF." What you
do say is "In this reaction, cesium combines with fluorine
to form cesium fluoride." Such is the nature of naming compounds.
- There are just a few steps that you need to follow so that
you can name any inorganic compound. There are steps for metal-nonmetal,
nonmetal-nonmetal, and acid compounds.
-
- If you need to look up an element on the periodic table for
the tutorial listed below, you can access it here.
Polyatomic ion listings are here.
|
|
1) Metal-Nonmetal Compounds. |
- Metal-nonmetal compounds are made with ionic bonds (ionic
bonds are bonds between cations and anions that involve a transfer
of electrons). To name a metal-nonmetal compound, you first write
down the name of the cation (which is almost always the metal).
Then you write down the name of the second element, replace the
ending with the suffix -ide.
- If the metal has more than 1 oxidation state, then you after
you write it down, you follow it with parentheses and the oxidation
number, written in roman numerals.
-
- Examples:
- a) NaCl - sodium chloride
- b) K2S - potassium sulfide
- c) FeCl2 - iron(II) chloride
|
|
2) Nonmetal-Nonmetal Compounds. |
Nonmetal-nometal compounds are made exclusively with
covalent bonds. To name nonmetal-nonmetal compounds, you use
prefixes such as tetra- or tri- to describe how many atoms of
each element there are (a complete list of prefixes is here).
Omit any mono- prefixes if they appear first in the compound,
such as in example a. Also, as before, add the -ide suffix.
- Examples:
- a) CO2 - carbon dioxide
- b) P2S5 - diphosphorous
pentasulfide
|
|
3) Acids |
- Acidic compounds are those that contain H+ ions ionically
bonded to a nonmetal anion. Acids are named exactly like normal
nonmetal-metal compounds. However, you can also name them in
such a way as to include 'acid' in the name.
- To do this, you replace the suffix with one of the following:
- a) -ate becomes -ic acid
- b) -ite becomes -ous acid
- c) -ide becomes hydro_____ic acid
- Exception: With acids involving sulfur, like hydrogen sulfate,
add a ur- before the suffix.
-
- Examples:
- a) HNO3 - nitric acid
- b) HNO2 - nitrous acid
- c) H2SO4 - sulfuric acid
|
- Now Test Yourself!
- Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of
nomenclature.
|
- i) CuO
- ii) Ti(OH)4
- iii) BCl3
- iv) N2O4
- v) HCl
- vi) HBr
-
- Answers
|
Authors: J. Rossignol, C. Shultz
| Page may be printed for personal or classroom reference.
For full usage information, please read our Terms
of Usage. |
|
|
