Please teach me how to name chemical compounds..?

Question

please teach me the easier way..because im only 14

Answer 1

There is not easy way but to memorize the Periodic Table.

Answer 2

First, let's start with naming binary ionic compounds.

A binary ionic compound has one metal and one nonmetal present in the compound. Let's consider my username (rubidium.chloride) as an example.

Rubidium chloride, or RbCl, is a binary ionic compound. The metal here is Rb (rubidium, group 1A) and the nonmetal is Cl (chlorine, group 7A).

When you name binary ionic compounds, you mention the cation (positively charged ion) first (usually metals, those elements that appear on the left side of the periodic table have the tendency to form positively-charged ions). Then mention the anion (negatively charged ion).

The cation is rubidium (Rb). We mention it thus:

Rubidium

The anion is chlorine. When we write the name of the anion [alongside with the cation], we drop the ending -ine (or whatever ending it may have) and replace it with -ide.

So chlorine now becomes chlor + ide = chloride.

Therefore, the name of the compound is Rubidium Chloride.

When you write the formulas of binary ionic compounds, you use the criss-cross method. Here's how it works:

Rubidium has a charge of +1. Chlorine has a charge of -1.

You interchange the charges of both ions. These charges, when interchanged, become the subscripts of the elements in the compound.

Hence, the compound now looks Rb1Cl1. Since the subscripts are all 1, we can remove them and write the formula as RbCl.

Here's another example:

Give the formula of the compound magnesium chloride.

Mg has a charge of +2. Chlorine has a charge of -1.

When you interchange the respective charges of magnesium and chlorine, we get the following formula:

Mg1Cl2

We simplify this as MgCl2.

A list of the common cations and ions is found at the back page or on the chapter of naming chemical compounds of your chemistry book. Take time to know them by heart.

But what if...

you've got a compound named sodium nitrate.

Ok. The formula is NaNO3. How did I know?

Sodium nitrate is an example of a ternary ionic compound. A ternary ionic compound has two or more elements present in it. In this case, there are 3 (Na, N and O).

The naming system of ternary ionic compounds is the same as that of binary ionic compounds.

Let's name the participating ions:

Na+

NO3-

NO3- is the formula for the polyatomic ion (two or more elements joined together sharing a common charge; they act as one unit when they combine with other elements) nitrate.

We interchange the charges of sodium and nitrate. Interchanging them gives us the formula

NaNO3

To name this formula, just combine the name of the cation and anion together. In this case, it is sodium nitrate.

What if we have a formula like this?

Ba(OH)2

Don't worry. This is just barium hydroxide.

Let's analyze why this came about.

The charge of Ba is +2 and hydroxide (OH-) is -1. When you combine them together by interchanging subscripts, we get the following:

BaOH2

Wait. The formula doesn't make sense. H is not the only atom having two of its kind, but O too.

So we put parentheses around hydroxide to indicate that there are two units of the hydroxide ion, each of which has two O and H atoms respectively.

We now have the formula

Ba(OH)2.

Again, review the list of common polyatomic cations and anions. So far there are two polyatomic cations: hydronium (H3O+) and ammonium (NH4+). This can be found in your chem book and in the net.

There are still lots of stuff related to this, most of which are very basic, and I don't have the space to tackle all of them here. Read your chem book or surf the net for more info. You can ask your chem teacher and friends for help, too.

:)

Answer 3

If you have two combined elements, it's [something]-ide.

Example:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) - made of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. The carbon comes from the carbon and di just means two, so diox = two oxygens. The -ide at the end means there's only two elements in the molecule.

If you have three combined elements, it's [something]-ate. But one of the elements MUST be oxygen.

Example:

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Calcium comes from the calcium in it, carbon is for the carbon, and the -ate is the part that shows that it's three parts. Because we know that everything that ends in -ate must have oxygen in it, we know the third one is oxygen.

Hope this was easy enough for you :)

Answer 4

compound like H2SO4, HCO3 etc are very common compounds and start off by naming the oxygen first.since its 4, we call it tetra oxo.if its 3 we call it tri oxo.the s stand for sulphate while the c stands for carbon.the h stands for hydrogen so when naming a compound such as H2SO4, you have to know were to start from.H2SO4 is called hydrogen, tetraoxo sulphate 6 while HC03 IS called hydrogen trioxocarbonate 4. the 6 and 4 are gotten by molecular calculations which is quite easy if you know your periodic table very well.