http://www.ck12.orgCHAPTER
7 Chemical Nomenclature
Chapter Outline
7.1 Ionic Compounds
7.2 MOLECULARCOMPOUNDS
7.3 ACIDS ANDBASES
7.4 REFERENCES
You are familiar with the names of many chemical compounds. Recall that a compound is two or more elements that
have been chemically combined. Water is a chemical compound and you probably know that its chemical formula
is H 2 O. That formula tells you that water is composed of the elements hydrogen and oxygen. However, the physical
and chemical properties of liquid water are nothing like the properties of hydrogen and oxygen, which are both
gases. Water is an example of a common name that is given to a compound because it is something that everybody
is accustomed to seeing and using every day. Yet there are millions of known chemical compounds out there. To
give each and every one of them a common name would be a hopeless and confusing task. The figure above is a
famous painting of French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) and his wife. Lavoisier is generally considered
to be the founder of modern chemistry. Among his many accomplishments was the recognition that a systematic
method was needed for naming the ever-increasing number of chemical compounds that were being created. Such a
naming system is called nomenclature. This chapter will teach you the rules of nomenclature and allow you to name
and write formulas for many simple chemical compounds.
Jacques−Louis David.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_o f_Antoine−Laurent_Lavoisier_and_his_wi f e.j pg.Public Domain.