Naming Compounds

Rules and Guidelines

General Rules
The first letter of the first ion is written in capital letters then the 2nd would be in small letters The cross charge method is always observed in identifying the symbol The first ion is always positive and the 2nd is always negative Ions with similar charges cant form a compound.

For oxyanions:
per (short for hyper) is used as a prefix for the highest value available then it would have a suffix ate. Like in perchlorate (ClO4) ate is used as a suffix for higher values. Like in phosphate (PO4) and sulfate (SO4) ite is used as a suffix for lower values. Like in phosphite (PO3) and sulfite (SO3) hypo is used as a prefix for the lowest value available then it would have a suffix ite. Like in hypochlorite (ClO)

Binary Salts: Single Metal ion + single negative ion

Rule: The metal ions name is retained We take the stem of the negative ion then add the suffix ide The ide suffix indicates a single negative ion, an exemption would be hydroxide (OH).

Examples
Sodium chloride NaCl Calcium hydride CaH2 Aluminum bromide AlBr3

Ternary Salts: Metal ion + negative polyatomic ion

Rule: Both names are retained Ex: Beryllium sulfate BeSO4 Calcium phosphate Ca3(PO4)2 Aluminum acetate Al(C2H3O2)3 Lithium nitrite LiNO2

Metal ions with more than 2 Oxidation States

Rule: Classical Method The metal ion would either use its Latin or English name Only applicable to the first 2 lower ON of the metal ion (like manganese that has 4 ONs it will only be applicable to +2 and +3 charges) Get the stem of the metal ion then add ic for the higher ON then ous for the lower ON Negative ions will just follow previous rules

Examples
Ferric oxide = Fe2O3 (Fe +3 and O -2) Ferrous oxide = FeO (Fe +2 and O -2) Plumbic sulfate =Pb(SO4)2(Pb +4 and SO4 -2) Plumbous sulfite =PbSO3(Pb +2 and SO3 -2) Manganic sulfide = Mn2S3 (Mn +3 and S -2) Manganous sulfide = MnS (Mn +2 and S -2)

Metal ions with more than 2 Oxidation States

Rule: Stock Method Applicable to all OS of metal ions The English names of metal ions are used The OSs are written in Roman Numerals enclosed in a parenthesis after the name of the metal ion Then same rules will apply for the negative ions

Examples
Mercury (I) oxide = Hg2O (Hg+1 + O-2) Mercury (II) oxide = HgO (Hg+2 + O-2) Lead (II) acetate = Pb(C2H3O2)2 (Pb+2 + C2H3O2-1) Lead (IV) carbide = PbC (Pb+4 and C+4)

Binary Non-metals: Non-metal to non-metal

Rule: We use greek prefixes and place them in front of the elements name. This could be done on both first and second ion. We follow the same rules for naming binary salts, retain the name of the first element and for the 2 element get the stem then add ide to indicate it is a binary compound. The greek prefix is then added to indicate the number of atoms present in the compound.

Examples
Carbon monoxide = CO Trinitrogen tetrasulfide = N3S4 Carbon tetrachloride = CCl4 Tetranitrogen hexoxide = N4O6 Carbon heptasulfide = CS7

Greek Prefixes
Mono Di Tri Tetra Penta 1 2 3 4 5 Hexa Hepta Octa Nona Deca 6 7 8 9 10

Binary Non-metals: Non-metal to non-metal

Rules of grammar are applied here, when a is followed by a vowel sound (like o) we drop a. same rule will apply for o followed by o (Ex: heptoxide = O7, monoxide = O)

If the first ion has only one atom, mono is not written anymore.

Binary acids: Hydrogen + single ion

Rule: Dry form: Just follow the standard metal non-metal naming method (Hydrogen + stem of negative ion + ide) Aqueous form: Add stem Hydro + stem of single ion + ic and the word acid.

Examples
Hydrogen chloride (Dry Form) Hydrochloric acid (Aqueous Form) = HCl Hydrogen bromide (DF) Hydrobromic acid (AF) = HBr Hydrogen sulfide (DF) Hydrosulfuric acid (AF) = H2S Hydrogen iodide (DF) Hydroiodic acid (AF) = HI

The stem for sulfur is not used in acid form but taken as a whole, like hydrosulfuric and sulfuric acids.

Ternary acids: Hydrogen + poly atomic ion

Rule: Dry form: Hydrogen and polyatomic ions name are retained Aqueous form: we change the suffix ate to ic and ite to ous then add acid

Examples
Hydrogen sulfate (DF) Sulfuric acid (AF) = H2SO4 Hydrogen sulfite (DF) Sulfurous acid (AF) = H2SO3 Hydrogen nitrate (DF) Nitric acid (AF) = HNO3 Hydrogen nitrite (DF) Nitrous acid (AF) = HNO2 Hydrogen acetate (DF) Acetic acid (AF) = HC2H3O2

Bases: Metal ion + hydroxide (OH)

Rule: Same methods for naming metal non metal combinations are followed. Metal ions name is retained then we write hydroxide (OH) Methods for classical and stock methods are applied

Examples
Aluminum hydroxide Sodium hydroxide Ferric hydroxide Ferrous hydroxide Mercury (I) hydroxide Mercury (II) hydroxide Al(OH)3 NaOH Fe(OH)3 Fe(OH)2 HgOH Hg(OH)2