Untitled - Kelly Walsh High School

22 CHEMISTRY FOR THE UTTERLY CONFUSED
Don’t Forget!
Don’t Forget!
Finally, you will need to memorize the common names of the following molecular
compounds:
Water H 2O Ammonia NH 3 Methane CH 4
Get a complete nomenclature list from your instructor.
When naming compounds containing species not on these lists, it may help to
find a chemical species on the list from the same family or a polyatomic ion that
is similar.
Some compounds are simple molecules with special names. The short list containing
water contains examples of this type of nomenclature. You must simply
learn these names; more rules do not alter the fact that H 2O is water.
Some compounds, namely molecular compounds, contain only nonmetals.
Normally the compounds you need to name are binary compounds (containing
only two elements). If you have highlighted the metalloids on your periodic
table, everything to the right of the metalloids is a nonmetal. The following
rules apply to both nonmetals and metalloids. The only nonmetal excluded
from these nomenclature rules is hydrogen.
Hydrogen is nearly always an exception to the rules.
When naming a molecular compound, we name each element. The names
appear in the same order as they do in the molecular formula. The chemical
symbols in the formula are in the order the elements appear on the periodic
table. Thus, the element towards the right of the periodic table (excluding the
noble gases) will appear towards the right of the formula. If the elements are in
the same column, the one nearer the top will be last in the formula.