Common Polyatomic Ions
| Formula | Charge | Name |
|---|---|---|
| OH | 1- | Hydroxide |
| NO3 | 1- | Nitrate |
| NO2 | 1- | Nitrite |
| ClO3 | 1- | Chlorate |
| ClO2 | 1- | Chlorite |
| ClO1 | 1- | Hypochlorite |
| ClO4 | 1- | Perchlorate |
| C2H3O2 | 1- | Acetate |
| MnO4 | 1- | Permanganate |
| SO4 | 2- | Sulfate |
| SO3 | 2- | Sulfite |
| CO3 | 2- | Carbonate |
| CrO4 | 2- | Chromate |
| Cr2O7 | 2- | Dichromate |
| O2 | 2- | Peroxide |
| PO4 | 3- | Phosphate |
| PO3 | 3- | Phosphite |
| NH4 | 1+ | Ammonium |
How to Remember Most of Them:
__N__ick the __c__amel ate __c__lam for __s__upper in __P__hoenix
- the underlined letters (first letters) represent the element
- the amount of consonants in the word represent how many Oxygens are in the compound
- the amount of vowels represents the charge
- ate represents how each of these compounds end in “ate”
__N__ick: NO3 -1 Nitrate
__C__amel: CO3 -2 Carbonate
__Cl__am: ClO3 -1 Chlorate
__S__upper: SO4 -2 Sulfate
__P__hoenix: PO4-3 Phosphate
- if you subtract one oxygen from each of these it becomes “base” + “ite” instead of “ate”
- keeps the same charge
- there is a carbonite but its unstable so I won’t show you that (It would be CO2 -2)
Nitrate NO3 -1 : NO2 -1 Nitrite
Chlorate ClO3 -1 : ClO2 -1 Chlorite
Sulfate SO4 -2 : SO3 -2 Sulfite
Phosphate PO4-3 : PO3 -3 : Phosphite
- chlorate is super special
- not only does it have chlorate and chlorite, but if you take away 2 oxygens instead of 1, you get hyper chlorite
- and if you add one instead of take any away you get perchlorate
Perchlorate ClO4 -1
Chlorate ClO3 -1
Chlorite ClO2 -1
Hypochlorite ClO -1
We can also add a few more words to this, but they don’t follow the subtraction of oxygen rules:
__N__ick the __cr__abby __c__amel ate __c__lam, __c__rabgrass and __m__i__n__ts for __s__upper in __P__hoenix
__Cr__abby: CrO4 -2 Cromate
__Cr__abgrass: Cr2O7 -2 Dichromate
__M__i__n__ts: MnO4 -1 Permanganate