What are the Rules of Naming a Compound in Chemistry?
How are Chemical Compounds Named?
Chemical nomenclature is the process of naming compounds. Naming compounds is important to allow scientists to identify and recognise the different compounds. When naming molecular compounds prefixes are used to dictate the number of a given element present in the compound. For example:
- “mono-” indicates one,
- “di-” indicates two,
- “tri-” is three,
- “tetra-” is four,
- “penta-” is five,
- “hexa-” is six,
- “hepta-” is seven,
- “octo-” is eight,
- “nona-” is nine,
- and “deca” is ten.
For a more in depth explanation check out this video.
How do you know whether to use 'ide' or 'ate', when naming a compound?
-ide is used for non-metal compounds generally. For example, Chlorine forms a chloride ion, so NaCl is Sodium Chloride. -ate and -ite are commonly used for polyatomic ions of Oxygen. -ate is used for the ion that has the largest number of Oxygen atoms. The -ite would be used for the ion with the smaller. NO2 and NO3 are known as Nitrite and Nitrate respectively. Nitrite has a smaller number of oxygen atoms so when added to an element it will be _ Nitrite. On the other than, Nitrate has a larger number of Oxygen atoms so when added to an element it is _ Nitrate Share your tips and advice for learning the names of chemical compounds in the comments.