Subject : PHYSICAL SCIENCE

Subject Code:PSci 02
Module: Q1W4

WRITING FORMULAS AND NAMING

COMPOUNDS

Introduction

Main Idea
For both ionic and covalent compounds, you can write a name from the chemical formula or a chemical formula
from the name.

Relate to Real World

How do you refer to specific individuals on a basketball team? On their jerseys, you’ll find both their names and
their numbers. In the same way, compounds may be identified by either their names or their chemical formulas.

The Picture below is an early table of the elements

made for alchemy, a practice from the Middle Ages
that laid the foundations for modern chemistry.
Alchemists used symbols like these to write the
formulas of substances created when individual
elements combined.

Writing Chemical Formulas

Binary Ionic compounds

Oxidation Numbers
 To write a chemical formula, you need to know the elements involved and the number of electrons they
gain, lose, or share to become stable. This last piece of information is what chemists refer to as an
element’s oxidation number.
 An oxidation number is a positive or negative number that indicates how many electrons an atom has
gained, lost, or shared to become stable.
 For ionic compounds, the oxidation number is the same as the charge on the ion.

For example:
sodium ion has a charge of 1+ and an oxidation number of 1+.
chloride ion has a charge of 1– and an oxidation number of 1–.

 Many elements have one common oxidation number

 The number at the top of each column is the most
common oxidation number of the elements in that
group.

 Many of the transition elements can have more than one oxidation number.

Table A . Special Ions

Ion Name Oxidation
Number
Copper(I) 1+
Copper(II) 2+
Iron(II) 2+
Iron(III) 3+
Chromium(II) 2+
Chromium(III) 3+
Lead(II) 2+
Lead(IV) 4+

Steps In Writing Formulas

Writing formulas Once you’ve found the oxidation numbers and their least common multiple, you can write
formulas for binary ionic compounds by using the rules below.
1. Write the symbol of the element that has the positive oxidation number or charge.
• All metals have positive oxidation numbers. Hydrogen often does.
2. Write the symbol of the element with the negative oxidation number.
• Nonmetals have negative oxidation numbers. Hydrogen does occasionally, when bonded to a metal.
3. Find the least common multiple of the charges of each ion.
• The charge (without the sign) of one ion becomes the subscript of the other ion. Reduce the subscripts to the
smallest whole numbers that retain the ratio of the ions.

Writing of formula of Binary ionic compounds

The easiest compounds to write formulas for are binary compounds, which are composed of two elements.
A binary ionic compound is a compound composed of a monatomic metal cation and a monatomic nonmetal
anion.
When writing formulas, remember that although the individual ions that make up ionic compounds carry charges,
the compound itself is neutral.
For example:
1. lithium fluoride (see periodic table)

Charge/oxidation Charge/oxidation
number for lithium number for flourine

Li1+ F1- LiF

Element symbol Element symbol
Chemical Formula
for lithium for flourine

2. Write the formula for aluminum oxide.

 Al3+
 O2-
 Find the least common multiple of 3 and 2, which is 6. In order to have a 6+ charge, you need two
aluminum ions. In order to have a 6– charge, you need three oxygen ions. This gives the neutral
compound
 Al2 O3 .

Other option
aluminum oxide (see periodic table)
Charge/oxidation Charge/oxidation
number for aluminum number for oxygen

Al3+ O2- Al2O3

Element symbol Element symbol Chemical Formula
for aluminum for oxygen

To find the Chemical Formula balance the charge/oxidation number of both Al & O.

Total charge of
Al3+ O2-
Al = 6+

Al3+ O 2- Total charge of

O = 6-

O2-
Al2 O3
Assessment I: Please answer the Following
Therefore we need 2AL3+
w/c will balance 3O2-
1. What is the formula for lithium nitride?
2. What is the formula for potassium sulfide?
3. What is the formula for calcium chloride?
4. What is the formula for lead (IV) phosphide?
Naming of binary ionic compounds

Name binary ionic compounds with these rules.

1. Write the name of the positive ion.
2. Using Table A, check to see whether the positive ion forms more than one oxidation number. If so, determine
the oxidation number of the ion from the formula of the compound. Remember, the overall charge of the
compound is zero, and the negative ion has only one possible charge. Write the charge of the positive ion using
roman numerals in parentheses after the ion’s name.
3. Write the root name of the anion. The root is the first part of the element’s name. Chlorine is chlor–; oxygen is
ox–.
4. Add the ending –ide to the root, as shown in Table B. Chlorine becomes chloride and oxygen becomes oxide.
Subscripts are not part of the name for ionic compounds.

Table B . Special Ions

Element -ide Name

Oxygen oxide
Phosphorus phosphide
Nitrogen nitride
Sulfur sulfide

Example:
What would a chemist name the compound CuCl?

the names of the atoms in the compound: copper and chlorine

1. Name the positive ion in the compound.

- The positive ion is copper.

2. Check Table A to determine whether the positive ion can have more than one oxidation number. If it can,
determine which one to use, name the positive ion, and write the charge using roman numerals in parentheses.
- Copper has two oxidation numbers. The oxidation number for chlorine is 1–, so copper has to be 1+. The
positive ion is copper(I).

3. Write the root name of the negative ion.

- The negative atom is chlorine. The root is chlor–

4. Add the ending –ide to the root of the negative ion.

- Adding –ide to the negative root name is chloride.

The compound name is copper(I) chloride.

Check the Answer: In an ionic compound, the positive ion is a metal and
the negative ion is a nonmetal—the name should be
in this order. The name copper(I) chloride has the metal
first and the nonmetal second.

Assessment II: Please answer the Following

- What is the name of AlCl3 ?
- What is the name of Li2 S?

Compounds With Complex Ions

 Not all compounds are binary. Many common compounds contain more than two atoms.
 Baking soda—used in cooking, as a medicine, and for brushing your teeth—has the formula NaHCO 3 is
an example of an ionic compound that is not binary.
  Some compounds, including baking soda, contain polyatomic ions.
 The prefix poly–means “many,” so the term polyatomic means “having many atoms.”
 A polyatomic ion is a positively or negatively charged, covalently bonded group of atoms.
 Polyatomic ions as a whole contain two or more elements.
 Even though polyatomic ions contain more than one element, they act like individual ions in forming
compounds. The polyatomic ion in baking soda is the hydrogen carbonate ion ( HC O 3 – ), which is
commonly called bicarbonate.

Writing formulas of Compounds With Complex Ions

 To write formulas for compounds containing these ions, follow the rules for binary compounds, with one
addition.
 When more than one polyatomic ion is needed to balance the charges of the ions, write parentheses
around the polyatomic ion before adding the subscript.

Example: Write the formula of barium chlorate

 identify the symbol of the positive ion.

–
 identify the negative chlorate ion. Table C shows that it is ClO 3
 Finally, you need to balance the charges of the ions to make the compound neutral.

Barium Chlorate barium chlorate

Ba2+ ClO3- Ba(ClO3)2

 Because the chlorate ion is polyatomic, you use parentheses before adding the subscript. Therefore, the
formula is Ba(ClO3)2

Table C . Polyatomic Ion

Charge Name Formula

1+ ammonium N H 4+
1- acetate C2H 3 O 2 –
chlorate ClO3 –
hydoxide OH–
nitrate NO 3 –
Write the chemical formula for 2- carbonate CO3 2– ammonium phosphate.
 identify the symbol of the sulfate SO4 2– positive ion. (NH41+)
 identify the negative 3- phosphate PO43– phosphate ion. Table C
3-
shows that it is PO4
 Finally, you need to balance the charges of the ions to make the compound neutral.

Total charge of
PO4 = 3-

NH41+ PO43-
NH2- 41+
O Total charge of
NH4 = 3+
2- 1+
O
NH4
2-
 (NH4)3 PO4 w/c will balance PO43-

Naming of Compounds With Complex Ions

 First, write the name of the positive ion.
 Then write the name of the negative ion.

Example:
What is the name of Sr(OH )2
- Begin by writing the name of the positive ion, strontium.
- Then find the name of the polyatomic ion OH– . Table C lists it as hydroxide.
- the name is strontium hydroxide.

Naming Binary Covalent Compounds

 Covalent compounds are those formed between elements that are nonmetals. S
 Some pairs of nonmetals can form more than one compound with each other .
Example: nitrogen and oxygen can combine to form a number of different compounds, including N2O,
NO, NO2 , and N2O5 .
 a different system of naming must be used for covalent compounds.
 Scientists use the Greek prefixes in Table 6 to indicate how many atoms of each element are in a binary
covalent compound.
 The nitrogen and oxygen compounds N2O, NO, NO2 , and N2O5 would be named dinitrogen
monoxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and dinitrogen pentoxide, respectively.

Table D . Prefixes for Covalent Compounds

Number of Atoms Prefix Example

1 mono– carbon monoxide
2 di– sulfur dioxide
3 tri– phosphorous trichloride
4 tetra– carbon tetrachloride
5 penta– dinitrogen pentoxide
6 hexa– uranium hexafluoride
7 hepta– dichlorine heptoxide
8 octa– xenon octaflouride
Compounds with Added
Water
 Some compounds have water molecules as part of their structures. These compounds are called hydrates.
 A hydrate is a compound that has water chemically attached to its atoms and written into its chemical
formula.

Common hydrates
 The term hydrate comes from a word that means “water.”
o When a solution of cobalt chloride evaporates, pink crystals that contain six water molecules for
each unit of cobalt chloride are formed.
o The formula for this compound is CoCl2· 6H2O and is called cobalt chloride hexahydrate.
o You can remove water from these crystals by heating them.
o The resulting blue compound is called anhydrous cobalt chloride.
o The word anhydrous means “without water.”
o When anhydrous (blue) CoCl2 is exposed to water, even from the air, it will revert back to its
hydrated state.
The plaster of paris shown in Figure 18 also forms a hydrate when water is added. It is made from calcium sulfate
dihydrate, which is also known as gypsum. When writing a formula for a hydrate, the water is shown after a “ · ”.
Following the dot, write the number of water molecules attached to the compound. For example, calcium sulfate
dihydrate (gypsum) is written CaSO4 · 2 H 2 O. Notice that when naming hydrates, you use the same prefixes
listed in Table 6 to indicate the number of water molecules.