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