Chapter 2: Atomic Structure-Ionic and Covalent Compounds: Writing formulas of Covalent Compounds
II. Binary compounds containing only nonmetal elements.
The element written first is named first and the second element
retains the modified binary ending of -ide. In addition a Latin or
Greek prefix is associated with the name of each element to indicate
the number of atoms of each element in the periodic table. For
example,
Number
|
Prefix
|
Number
|
Prefix
|
1
|
mono
|
6
|
hexa
|
2
|
di
|
7
|
hepta
|
3
|
tri
|
8
|
octa
|
4
|
tetra
|
9
|
nona
|
5
|
penta
|
10
|
deca
|
Several examples of the names for binary compounds containing
only nonmetal atoms include;
CO2
carbon dioxide
CO
carbon monoxide
N2O
dinitrogen monoxide
CCl4
carbon tetrachloride
P2O5
diphosphorus pentoxide
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