Naming Compounds

Chapter 1
 Molecules and Chemical Formulae
• Atoms are the smallest representative sample of elements that
display its properties but only the noble gas elements are found in
nature as isolated atoms.
• Most matter exist as molecules or ions (which are both formed by
atoms).
• Molecules are a combination of two or more atoms that are tightly
bound and behave in many ways as a single object.
 Molecules and Chemical Formulae
• In nature many elements exist in their molecular form where two or
more of the same type of atom are bound together for example
oxygen exists as O2.
• The subscript to the right of the symbol of an element indicates the
number of atoms of that element in one molecule of the compound.
• Molecules made up of two atoms are called diatomic molecules.
Other examples are H2, N2 and the halogens.
 Molecules and Chemical Formulas
• Compounds that are composed of molecules are called molecular
compounds and may contain atoms of more than one type of
element.
• In the formula for a molecular compound we write the element
symbols followed by a subscript indicating how many atoms of each
element is represented in the molecule for the compound.
• For water, two hydrogen atoms combine with one oxygen atom and
we write the formula as H2O.
• Molecular compounds are composed of molecules and almost always
contain only non-metals.

H2O CO2 NH3 CH4 SF6

Molecular, Empirical and Structural Formulas
• A chemical formula that indicates the actual number and types of
atoms in a molecule is called a molecular formula.
• A chemical formula that only gives the relative number of atoms of
each type of element in molecules is called an empirical formula. It
gives the simplest whole number (integer) ratio in which atoms of
elements combine. Dividing each subscript by the largest common
factor
• Example: The molecular formula for hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 but its
empirical formula is HO.
• A structural formula on the other hand show which atoms are
attached to one another within the molecule, e.g. H-O-O-H
Empirical Molecular Structural
CH3 C2H6

HO H2O2 H-O-O-H
 Problems
Write the empirical formulas for the following molecular
formulas:
i) C12H24O6
ii) P4O10
iii) Al4O6
iv) C6H12O5
 Problems
Write the empirical formulas for the following molecular
formulas:
i) C12H24O6 C2H4O
ii) P4O10 P2O5
iii) Al4O6 Al2O3
iv) C6H12O5 C6H12O5
 Picturing Molecules
• There are different ways to represent molecules:
• Structural formulas do not depict geometry of molecules but can be
drawn as a perspective drawing to give a sense of the three
dimensional shape of a molecule.
• Ball and stick models accurately depict angles at which atoms are
bonded and the size of the balls reflect the relative sizes of the atoms.
• Space fill models depict what the atoms look like when scaled up in
size.

Molecular Structural Ball and stick Perspective Space fill

formula formula model drawing model
 Ions and Ionic compounds
• An ion is formed when atoms lose or gain electrons
• Cations are positive and are formed by elements on the left
side of the periodic table.
• Anions are negative and are formed by elements on the right
side of the periodic table.
• Many atoms gain or lose electrons as to end up with the same
number of electrons as the stable noble gasses.
 Ionic compounds
• Ionic compounds are generally combinations of metals and non-metals
such as in the case of NaCl.
• In NaCl, metal sodium reacts with elemental chlorine where the
sodium transfers an electron to the neutral chlorine atom.
• The compound is neutral overall and the ions are held together by
electrostatic forces.
• The ions in an ionic compound do not form molecules but pack in an
orderly fashion that results in each ion having multiple neighbours in a
three dimensional network which is generally a crystalline structure.
10 e-
11 e-
Na+
Na 11 p+
11 p+
18 e-
17 e-
Cl-
Cl 17 p+
17 p+
Writing formulas for Ionic compounds
• Since these compounds are electrically neutral, the formula can be
determined by:
• writing the value of the charge on the cation as the subscript on
the anion.
• writing the value of the charge on the anion as the subscript on
the cation.
Note: if the subscripts are not in the lowest whole number ratio, it
can be simplified, e.g. Ca2O2 would become CaO.

Ca2+ F- CaF2
 Nomenclature
• Nomenclature is the devising of a method for choosing
names for things.
• In chemical nomenclature there are a set of rules to
generate systematic names for chemical compounds.
Chemical Nomenclature Positive Ions
(Cations)
• Cations have the same name as the metal they derive from,
e.g. Na+ is sodium ion and Al3+ is the aluminium ion.
• If a metal can form different cations, the positive charge is
indicated by a Roman numeral in brackets following the
name of the metal, e.g. Au+ is the gold(I) ion and Au3+ is the
gold(III) ion. An older method exists that uses the suffixes
“-ous” and “-ic” to indicate lower and higher charges. Fe2+
is also called the ferrous ion and Fe3+ is known as the ferric
ion.
• Cations formed from non-metal atoms have names that
end in -ium, e.g. NH4+ is the ammonium ion.
Chemical Nomenclature
Common Ions
Oxoanions and oxoacids
Chemical Nomenclature
Common Ions
Chemical Nomenclature Negative Ions
(Anions)
• The names of monatomic anions are formed by replacing
the ending of the name of the element with “-ide”, e.g.
O2- is the oxide ion.
• Polyatomic anions containing oxygen (oxoanions) have
names ending in “-ate” or “-ite”, e.g. SO42- is the sulfate
ion and SO32- is the sulfite ion.
• Anions derived by adding H+ to an oxoanion are named by
-
adding the prefix hydrogen or dihydrogen, e.g. HCO3 is
the hydrogen carbonate ion.
Chemical Nomenclature Negative Ions
(Anions)
• Polyatomic anions containing oxygen (called oxoanions) have
names ending in “-ate” or “-ite”, e.g. SO42- is the sulfate ion and
SO32- is the sulfite ion. In cases where the suffixes “–ate” and “–ite”
are not enough to distinguish between oxoanions a suffix and prefix
may be combined.
Example: ClO-, ClO2-, ClO3- and ClO4-
• For the two ions with the lesser amount of oxygens give the suffix
“-ite” and the prefix “hypo” is added to the ion with the least
number of oxygens.
• For the two ions with the greater number of oxygens give the suffix
“-ate” and the prefix “per” to the ion with the greatest number of
oxygens.
ClO- ClO2- ClO3- ClO4-
Hypochlorite ion Chlorite ion Chlorate ion Perchlorate ion
 Chemical Nomenclature
Ionic Compounds
• Names of ionic compounds consist of the cation
followed by the anion name, e.g. Cu(ClO4)2 is copper(II)
perchlorate, and CaCO3 is calcium carbonate.

Cation is named first

SODIUM CHLORIDE
Anion named next,
remembering the correct suffix
 Problems
Name the following ionic compounds:
i) KI
ii) Al2O3
iii) FeS
iv) Hg2Cl2
v) NH4Cl

Write formulas for the following ionic compounds:

i) Sodium fluoride
ii) Zinc(II) phosphate
iii) Calcium hydride
iv) Aluminium sulphate
 Problems
Name the following ionic compounds:
i) KI Potassium Iodide
ii) Al2O3 Aluminium(III) Oxide
iii) FeS Iron(II) Sulfide
iv) Hg2Cl2 Mercury(I) Chloride
v) NH4Cl Ammonium Chloride

Write formulas for the following ionic compounds:

i) Sodium fluoride NaF
ii) Zinc(II) phosphate Zn3(PO4)2
iii) Calcium hydride CaH2
iv) Aluminium sulphate Al2(SO4)3
 Chemical Nomenclature
Name and Formulas of Acids
• Acids containing anions that have names ending in “-ide”
are named by changing the “-ide” ending to “-ic”, adding
the prefix “hydro-” to the anion name, and then following
with the word acid.
Example: HBr aq (bromide) becomes hydrobromic acid
• Acids containing anions with names ending in “-ate” or “-
ite” are named by changing the “-ate” ending to “-ic” and
the “-ite” ending to “-ous” and then adding the word acid.
Example: H2SO3 (sulfite) becomes sulphurous acid and
HClO3 becomes chloric acid.
 Chemical Nomenclature
Binary Molecular Compounds
There are a few rules to naming binary molecular compounds
(compounds made up of two elements):
1. Write the name of the element furthest to the left in the periodic
table first.
2. If both elements are in the same group in the periodic table, the
one having the highest atomic number is written first.
3. The name of the second element is given an “-ide” suffix.
4. Greek prefixes indicate the number of atoms of each element.
 Chemical Nomenclature
Binary Molecular Compounds

Examples
N2O4 is dinitrogen tetroxide
NF3 is nitrogen trifluoride
 Problems
Name the following binary compounds:
i) HCl
ii) N2O3
iii) NO2
iv) SiCl4
Write formulas for the following compounds:
i) Carbon dioxide
ii) Trinitrogen pentoxide
iii) Sulphur hexafluoride
 Problems
Name the following binary compounds:
i) HCl(g) hydrogen chloride gas or HCl(aq) hydrochloric
acid
ii) N2O3 dinitrogen trioxide
iii) NO2 nitrogen dioxide
iv) SiCl4 silicon tetrachloride
Write formulas for the following compounds:
i) Carbon dioxide CO2
ii) Trinitrogen pentoxide N3O5
iii) Sulphur hexafluoride SF6
 Chemical Nomenclature
Hydrates
• Hydrates are solids, usually ionic in nature, that contain water
molecules in their crystal lattice. Copper(II)sulfate is an
example of such a compound since each formula unit of
CuSO4 contains five molecules of water.
• In writing the formula for hydrated compounds a dot is used
to separate the formulas of the two compounds (CuSO4 and
H2O).
• The formula CuSO4·5H2O indicates that there are 5 molecules
of water in the crystal lattice for every formula unit of CuSO4.
• When naming hydrates, use the name of the anhydrous
(without water) compound followed by the word hydrate. A
Greek prefix in front of the word hydrate is used to indicate
how many water molecules there are per formula unit of the
compound.
CuSO4·5H2O CuSO4

Chemistry is beautiful
Especially the colour changes
 CuSO4·5H2O

Long Cheng, Wen Li, Yifan Li, Yue Yang, Yanchun Li, Yi Cheng & Dongming Song
Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry volume 135, pages 2697–2703(2019)
 Problems
Name the following compounds:
i) CuSO4·5H2O
ii) BaCl2·2H2O
iii) ZnSO4·7H2O
Write formulas for the following compounds:
i) Magnesium chloride hexahydrate
ii) Sodium sulphate decahydrate
 Problems
Name the following compounds:
i) CuSO4·5H2O copper(II) sulphate pentahydrate
ii) BaCl2·2H2O barium dichloride dihydrate
barium chloride dihydrate
i) ZnSO4·7H2O zinc(II) sulphate heptahydrate
Write formulas for the following compounds:
i) Magnesium chloride hexahydrate MgCl2·6H2O
Magnesium dichloride hexahydrate
i) Sodium sulphate decahydrate Na2SO4·10H2O