Hydrogen compounds, binary, nomenclature

Hydrogen compounds, binary, nomenclature of, 2 258 Hydrogen fluoride, anhydrous, 1 134 anhydrous, precautions in using, 3 112... 

Many hydrogen compounds are acids. Acids require a different system of nomenclature than other compounds. There are two types of acids binary acids and ternary acids. All acids include the word acid in their name. Binary acids contain only two elements one of which is hydrogen and the other a nonmetal. When naming binary acids, the prefix hydro- appears before the root name of the nonmetal, and there will be an -ic suffix. As an acid, H2S would be hydrosulfuric acid. We used H2S to illustrate the fact that there can be two possible names, hydrogen sulfide or hydrosulfuric acid. If your instructor does not specify which name to use, either is correct. Technically, the name hydrosulfuric acid only applies to aqueous solutions of H2S, H2S(aq). 

Some compounds, namely molecular compounds, contain only nonmetals. Normally the compounds you need to name are binary compounds (containing only two elements). If you have highlighted the metalloids on your periodic table, everything to the right of the metalloids is a nonmetal. The following rules apply to both nonmetals and metalloids. The only nonmetal excluded from these nomenclature rules is hydrogen. 

Acids were first recognized as a specific class of compounds based on their properties in solutions of water. Consequently, in chemical nomenclature, the term acid usually refers to a solution in water of one of these special compounds rather than to the compound itself. For example, hydrochloric acid refers to a water solution of the molecular compound hydrogen chloride, HCl. Some common binary and oxyacids are listed in Figure 1.6. Figure 1.7 shows some common laboratory acids. 

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