CH 115 Fall 2014
Worksheet 11
1. How do you distinguish an ionic compound from a covalent compound?
Ionic – metal and nonmetal, NOT sharing electrons
Covalent/molecular – nonmetal and nonmetal, sharing electrons to form a
bond
The first step to naming a compound is to decide whether that compound is
ionic or covalent, so make sure you can distinguish between the two!
2. What are some rules for naming cations? Anions? Ionic compounds? (Think about
how these rules differ from naming covalent compounds).
Cations – name is same as name on periodic table
Anions – name on the periodic table + suffix of “ide”
Ionic compounds – name of cation comes first, name of anion comes second
Remember we don’t include Greek number prefixes for ionic
compounds!
Transition metals – include roman numeral indicating charge in
parentheses
3. What is a polyatomic ion? Where can you find a list of the polyatomic ions that you
should memorize for the test? Do you notice any patterns that might make it easier
to memorize these ions or is it just hard?
Charged species with multiple atoms bonded together with covalent bonds but will make ionic bonds with another ion!
List is Table 2.2 in your book (or just google search) – pg. 58.
MEMORIZE THIS LIST. YOU WILL NEED IT FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER
AND NEXT SEMESTER!
There are a few patterns that might help you memorize, although using
flashcards is probably the best way to go about it. Notice the endings of the
names of the ions and the number of oxygens in the polyatomic ion (e.g.
chlorite and nitrite both end in ite and have 2 oxygen atoms)
4. Fill in the table below.
Phosphorus trichloride
Sodium nitride
Aluminum phosphate
Acetate
PCl3
Na3N
AlPO4
CH3COO-
Perchlorate
Calcium dichromate
Carbonate
Copper (II) Sulfate
ClO4CaCr2O7
CO32CuSO4