General Chemistry for the Health Care Professions

General Chemistry
for the
Health Care Professions

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1-17. NAMING COVALENT INORGANIC COMPOUNDS

There are a number of inorganic compounds that are bonded into molecules by covalent bonds. Most of these are the oxides, sulfides, and halides of the nonmetallic elements.

Generally, these compounds are named by writing the name of the central atom (usually the first one in the formula) followed by the name of the anion formed by the other element. Number prefixes are used when necessary to avoid confusion between different compounds formed by the same elements. Here are some example s:

There are two very important exceptions to this which you have probably already seen. These are water (H₂O) and ammonia (NH₃). Both of these have common names, which are firmly established in the nomenclature, property of these two compounds which makes them different from almost all others is the ability to readily accept a proton (coordinate covalent bond with a hydrogen cation) to form cations. Thus water becomes hydronium ion (H₃O⁺¹); ammonia becomes ammonium ion (NH₄⁺¹) very easily in the right conditions.

COMPOUND	NAME OF COMPOUND
H₂S gas	Hydrogen sulfide
CO	Carbon monoxide
CO₂	Carbon dioxide

Examples

SO₂ is sulfur dioxide

SO₃ is sulfur trioxide

CCl₄ is carbon tetrachloride

NI₃ is nitrogen triiodide

CS₂ is carbon disulfide

NH₃ is ammonia

NH₄⁺¹ is called ammonium

NH₄Cl is ammnoium chloride

Original content of this course is supplied by Academy of Health Sciences
Fort Sam Houston, Tx.