How are molecular compounds named?

Answer 1

A complete answer to this question would fill a bookshelf. In fact, it takes a shelf full of publications by an international organization called the IUPAC. Any quick subset of the rules is bound to suffer from oversimplifications, omissions, and probably some outright inaccuracies. But let's give it a shot anyway!

First consider the basic -suffixes:

• INORGANIC
• -ide = salts comprised of only two elements;
• -ate, -ite = compounds containing a (usually metal) cation ion and a complex anion (usually involving oxygen);
• Also -per-(something)-ate and -hypo-(something)-ite
• hydro-(something)-ic = acids comprised of only hydrogen and some other element
• -ic, -ous (anions) = acids containing hydrogen a complex anion (usually involving axygen);
• Also -per-(something)-ic and -hypo-(something)-ous
• -ic, -ous (cations) = one of two ionic states of an element, outdated, but still often seen;
• ORGANIC
• -ane = hydrocarbons [HC] with single C-C bonds;
• -ene = an hydrocarbon with C=C double bond;
• -yne = a hydrocarbon with C=C triple bond;
• -amine = contains nitrogen and an ammonia-like" structure;
• -ol = an alcohol
• -ose = a sugar;
• -ase = an enzyme;
• -al = aldehydes;
• -one = ketones;

Before naming a compound, you have to figure out what kind of compound it is.

We will consider three types; ionic compounds without and with transition elements, and covalent compounds.

The transition elements are found in the B families of the Periodic Table. They are characterized by inner building - the "last" electron added by the aufbau procedure is an inner d electron. Electrons from the two outermost shells are used in chemical reactions. All these elements are metals; most of them are paramagnetic and form highly coloured, paramagnetic compounds. Inner transition elements also exist, they are found at the bottom of the Periodic Table but should properly follow group III B.

Another suffix is -ol, referring to any type of alcohol - methanol, ethanol, derived from methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6) - methanol is CH3OH while ethanol is C2H5OH.

Moving into biochemistry:

The suffices -in and -one refer to Hormones - eg insulin and testosterone.

The word roots 'lipo' and 'lipi' refer to fats.

Answer 2

If there's a metal in the compound it always comes first; the non-metal comes second, with the end of its name changed to 'ide'. * A compound of calcium & chlorine would become calcium chloride

If there are two elements, including one atom of oxygen, you do the same thing: * A compound of sodium & 1 oxygen becomes sodium oxide

But if the compound has two atoms of oxygen, again you do the same thing, but this time add 'per' to the front of the oxide. * Sodium + 2 atoms of oxygen becomes sodium peroxide.

In compounds composed of 2 non-metals, the prefixes mono-, di-, tri-, etc are used to indicate how many atoms of each element are present - but not for the first element unless there is more than one atom of it present. * Carbon with 1 atom of oxygen is carbon monoxide * Carbon with 2 atoms of oxygen is carbon dioxide * Carbon with 4 atoms of chlorine is carbon tetrachloride Where there is more than one atom of the first element, it goes: dinitrogen, trinitrogen etc.

Answer 3

The rules for naming binary molecular compounds are similar to those for naming ionic compounds. However, the names of molecular compounds include prefixes that indicate the number of atoms in the molecule.

Answer 4

Cuz they are