Chemical Nomenclature and Bonding: Ionic and Covalent Compounds

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering binary and ternary ionic compounds, covalent molecules, multivalent transition metals, polyatomic ions, and chemical formula rules.

Ionic Compound

A compound composed of a metal cation and a non-metal anion (or polyatomic ions) held together by ionic bonds, formed when electrons are transferred from the metal to the non-metal.

Covalent Compound

A chemical substance (also called a molecular compound or molecule) formed when non-metals share pairs of valence electrons with each other, without forming ions.

Multivalent Metal

A metal element (typically located in Groups $3$-$12$, plus elements like $Pb$ and $Sn$) that can form two or more types of cations with different positive charges.

Polyatomic Ion

An ion made up of two or more covalently bonded atoms that carries an overall positive or negative charge and acts as a single discrete unit.

Binary Ionic Compound

An ionic compound composed of only two different elements: a metal cation written first with its elemental name unchanged, and a non-metal anion ending with the suffix -ide.

Ternary Ionic Compound

An ionic compound containing three or more different elements, identified by having more than two capital letters in its formula due to the presence of a polyatomic ion.

Formula Unit

The lowest whole-number ratio of ions represented in an ionic compound, maintaining an overall neutral electrical charge of zero.

Cation

A positively charged ion formed when a metal atom or group of atoms (such as ammonium) loses one or more electrons.

Anion

A negatively charged ion formed when a non-metal atom or group of atoms gains one or more electrons.

Subscript

A small number placed at the lower right of a chemical symbol indicating the ratio or total number of atoms or ions of that element in the chemical formula.

Swap, Drop, and Chop Method

The multi-step process for writing ionic formulas by swapping the ion charge values, dropping them to subscripts without positive or negative signs, and chopping (reducing) them to their lowest terms.

Roman Numeral (in Nomenclature)

A notation placed in parentheses immediately following the metal's name (such as iron(III) or copper(II)) to indicate the specific charge or oxidation state of a multivalent metal ion.

Covalent Prefixes

Prefixes (such as mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta-, octa-, nona-, and deca-) used before element names in covalent molecules to specify how many atoms of each element are present.

Diatomic Elements

Seven non-metal elements that naturally pair into two-atom molecules, remembered by the mnemonic Mr. BrINClHOF: $H_2$, $N_2$, $O_2$, $F_2$, $Cl_2$, $Br_2$, and $I_2$.

Ammonium Ion

A positively charged polyatomic cation with the formula $NH_4^+$ and a charge of $1+$, which behaves like a metal cation when forming ionic compounds.