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Chemical Nomenclature

chemical nomenclature - naming of substances  

  • some compounds known for a long time have traditional, "common" names (ex. water, ammonia)
  • organic compounds - contain carbon
  • inorganic compounds - don't contain carbon

naming positive ions  

  • cations formed from metal atoms have the same name as the metal
  • w/ metals that have different charges, use numerals to show the positive charge
    • Fe2+ iron (II)
    • Fe3+ iron (III)
  • "-ous" added to latin form of metal name for ion w/ lower charge
    • Cu+ cuprous
    • Fe2+ ferrous
  • "-ic" added to latin form of metal name for ion w/ higher charge
    • Cu2+ cupric
    • Fe3+ ferric
  • cations formed from nonmetal atoms have names ending in "-ium"
    • NH4+ ammonium
    • H3O+ hydronium

naming negative ions  

  • replace the endings of monoatomic anions w/ "-ide"
    • Cl- chloride
    • O2- oxide
    • N3- nitride
  • oxyanions - polyatomic anions containing oxygen; names end w/ "-ate" for the most common form, "-ite" for the version w/ 1 less oxygen
    • SO42- sulfate
    • SO32- sulfite
    • NO3- nitrate
    • NO2- nitrite
  • prefixes - "per-" indicates anion w/ additional oxygen than the oxyanion ending in "-ate"; "hypo-" indicates anion w/ 1 less oxygen than the oxyanion ending in "-ite"
    • ClO- hypochlorite
    • ClO2- chlorite
    • ClO3- chlorate
    • ClO4- perchlorate
  • add word "hydrogen" or "dihydrogen" to the oxyanion name if H+ was added (thus decreasing the negative charge)
    • CO32- carbonate
    • HCO3- hydrogen carbonate

naming ionic compounds  

  • cation name followed by the anion name
    • CaCl2 calcium chloride
  • use roman numerals if the cation has multiple possible charges
    • CuClO copper (I) chlorite
    • FeSO4 iron (II) sulfate

naming acids  

  • equal to an anion connected to enough hydrogen ions to balance the charge
  • add "hydro-" and "-ic" to anion names that end in "-ide"
    • HCl hydrochloric acid
    • H2S hydrosulfuric acid
  • use "-ic" for anions ending in "-ate"
    • HClO3 chloric acid
  • use "-ous" for anions ending in "-ite"
    • HClO2 chlorous acid

naming binary molecular compounds  

  • write the name of the element farthest to the left on the periodic table first (but always write oxygen last)
  • write the lower element first if both are in the same group
  • 2nd element gets an "-ide" ending
  • use Greek prefixes to indicate how much of each element is in the compound (but don't use "mono-" for the 1st element)
    • Cl2O dichlorine monoxide
    • NF3 nitrogen trifluoride

alkanes - most basic class of hydrocarbons, each carbon atom is bonded to 4 other atoms  

  • hydrocarbon - compound containing only carbon and hydrogen
  • name ends in "-ane"
  • long alkanes use greek prefixes to show how many carbon atoms are used
  • alcohol - replaces a hydrogen atom w/ an -OH group; name ends in "-ol"
  • polyethylene - alkane series extended to include tens of thousands of carbon; used to make plastic products
  • polymer - substance made of thousands of smaller molecules
Subject: 
Chemistry
Subject X2: 
Chemistry

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