Covalent and Ionic Bonding

Ionic Nomenclature

• Cation uses its original name (e.g. Sodium)
• If the anion has no extra oxygen (e.g. Cl, N, O, etc.), change suffix to -ide (e.g. Cl becomes Chloride)
• If the anion has standard number of oxygen (e.g. $P{O}_4$ ), change suffix to -ate (e.g. $P{O}_4$ becomes Phosphate)
• If the anion has one less than the standard number of oxygen (e.g. $N{O}_2$), change suffix to -ite (e.g. $N{O}_2$ becomes Nitrite)
• If the anion has two less than the standard number of oxygen (e.g. $NO$), change the prefix to hypo- and the suffix to -ite (e.g. $NO$ becomes Hyponitrite)