Eva's lesson: Naming ionic compounds

This is my tutorial on how to name ionic compounds in Dr. Forman's ChemCom class. First, I will list some basic information that makes the process more understandable. Second, I will discuss the naming of cations and anions.

Key facts:

• Cations: positively charged ions
• Anions: negatively charged ions
• A cation is always named before an anion in an ionic compound
• Parenthesis go around a polyatomic ion

Cations:

• When metals only have one possible charge, the name of the metal is used
• When metals can have more than one charge, the name of the metal is followed by the number of the ionic charge in roman numerals. 
• Example: Copper (II) - This version of copper has a cation of a +2 charge
• The suffix -ous is used for the lowest lowest level of the ion and -ic s used for the highest ion. 
• Example: Cu+ is called cuprous while Cu2+ is called cupric. 

Here is a chart for further clarification:

Anions:

• Anions have the suffix -ide
• Example: Oxide (o2-)
• Polyatomic ions that include oxygen have the suffixes -ate or -ite. -ate means that there is more oxygen in the anion than -ite. Therefore, the anions with the bigger charges end in -ate while the smaller ones (ex. 1-) end in -ite.