IUPAC nomenclature of common inorganic acids
- Inorganic acids are named after the anions they release when dissolved in water.
- Binary Hydrogen Compounds have anions bonded with positive hydrogen ions. When in aqueous solution, when these anions are released, their acids are named by replacing the suffix –ide with hydro + anion name after removing –ide + ic acids. Some examples are given below:
Note: HCN is not a binary hydrogen compound but, it’s behaviour is somewhat similar to the hydrogen halides (HF, HCl, HBr, HI) and thus named in a similar manner as an acid.
- An oxoacid is an acid containing hydrogen, oxygen, and another element. The anion produced when an oxoacid dissolves in water is an oxoanion. The names of oxoacids follow the following rules:
- If a central atom can form two different oxoanions, the one with more oxygen atoms is named with the -ate suffix, and the one with fewer oxygen atoms is named with the – ite suffix. If the anion name ends in –ate, the corresponding acid name ends in –ic. If the anion name ends in –ite, the corresponding acid name ends in –ous.
- When a central atom can form three or four oxoacids, both the anions and the oxoacids are distinguished with the prefix hypo- and per- for the species with the fewest and most oxygen atoms, respectively.
IUPAC nomenclature of common inorganic bases
- Most inorganic bases have hydroxide ion and thus, they are named combining the name of the positive ion present in the base and adding hydroxide at the end. For example, the positive ion in NaOH is sodium (Na+) thus NaOH is called Sodium Hydroxide. Similarly, Ca(OH)2 → Calcium Hydroxide, Al(OH)3 → Aluminium Hydroxide etc.