Chemical Bonding and Nomenclature Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering ionic and covalent bonding, chemical nomenclature, polarity, diatomic elements, and oxidation numbers.

Cation

A positively charged particle formed when a neutral atom loses electrons, resulting in an extra proton charge. It is always the first name in an ionic compound.

Anion

A negatively charged particle formed when a neutral atom gains electrons, resulting from extra electrons. It is always the last name of an ionic compound, with its suffix changing to -ide, -ite, or -ate.

Octet Rule

A rule stating that elements achieve stability when they have 8 electrons in their valence shell. This is attained by metals losing electrons, nonmetals gaining electrons, or carbon and diatomic elements sharing electrons.

Valence Electrons

Electrons located on the outermost shell of an atom that are transferred or shared during chemical bonding.

Ionic Bond

A chemical bond formed by the transfer of valence electrons from a metal atom to a nonmetal atom, resulting in the formation of cations and anions.

Polyatomic Ion

A charged particle composed of a combination of 2 or more atoms, with names typically ending in -ite, -ate, and a few in -ide.

Covalent Bond

A chemical bond formed when valence electrons are shared between 2 nonmetals. Its bond strength is weak compared to an ionic bond.

Diatomic Elements

Seven elements in the periodic table ($H_2$, $N_2$, $O_2$, $F_2$, $Cl_2$, $Br_2$, $I_2$) that ALWAYS exist in a diatomic state because single atoms are not stable on their own.

Polar Compounds

Covalent compounds formed by unequal sharing of electrons between nonmetals with different electronegativities, resulting in a permanent dipole (e.g., $HCl$, $HBr$, $NH_3$).

Nonpolar Compounds

Covalent compounds formed by equal sharing of electrons between nonmetals with the same electronegativity, or where dipoles cancel out due to symmetrical arrangement (e.g., $CO_2$, $CH_4$, and all diatomic elements).

Oxidation Number

The total number of electrons that an atom either gains or loses in order to form a chemical bond with another atom.

Oxidation

A process defined as an increase in oxidation number.

Reduction

A process defined as a decrease in oxidation number.

Transition Elements

Metals that can form cations with multiple charges, whose ionic compounds are named using Roman numerals to indicate the charge of the metal ion.

Oxoanion Naming Rules

A naming system for oxoanions based on the relative number of oxygen atoms: per- + root + -ate (most oxygen atoms), root + -ate (more), root + -ite (less), and hypo- + root + -ite (least oxygen atoms).

Covalent Greek Prefixes

Numerical prefixes used to indicate the number of atoms in a covalent compound: 1 mono-, 2 di-, 3 tri-, 4 tetra-, 5 penta-, 6 hexa-, 7 hepta-, 8 octa-, 9 nona-, 10 deca-.

Oxidation Number Rules

Rules for assigning oxidation states: elemental form is zero (0); atomic ions equal the ion charge; Group 1A is +1; Group 2A is +2; Hydrogen is +1 with nonmetals and -1 with metals; Fluorine is -1; Oxygen is -2 (-1 in peroxides $O_2^{2-}$); sum in neutral compounds is zero; sum in polyatomic ions is the ion charge.