Ternary acids, naming

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). 

Ternary acids are usually named with the suffixes ic or ous. The exceptions are the acids derived from ions with an ide suffix (see HCN in the preceding section). These acids undergo many reactions to form salts, compounds of a metal, and the ion of an acid. The ions from the acids H2S04 and HN03 are S042, N03. If an acid name has the suffix ic, the ion of this acid has a name with the suffix ate. If an acid name has the suffix ous, the ion has a name with the suffix ite. Salts have the same suffixes as the suffixes of the ions. The difference between the acid with a suffix ic and the acid with the suffix ous can many times be determined by visual inspection of the formula. The acid with the suffix ous usually has one fewer oxygen atom than the acid with the suffix ic. Examples ... 

If the acid is a ternary acid, and it contains both chlorine and oxygen, move on to Rule 3. If the acid is any other ternary compound, delete the word hydrogen completely, and simply look at the name of the polyatomic ion that it contains. If the polyatomic ion ends in ate, change the ending to ic. If the polyatomic ion ends in ite, change the ending to ous. Add acid to the end of the name. 

The following table shows the names of several common ternary acids. Look at the names carefully, and try to see the pattern for the name changes. Remember Ate becomes ic and ite becomes ous. ... 

H2S03]—The name doesn t start with hydro-, so it must be a ternary acid, and it must contain a polyatomic ion. The ending of ous means that the polyatomic ion must end in ite, like sulfite, S032. 

Naming Binary Compounds 4-12 Naming Ternary Acids and Their Salts... 

A ternary compound consists of three elements. Ternary acids (oxoacids) are compounds of hydrogen, oxygen, and (usually) a nonmetal. Nonmetals that exhibit more than one oxidation state form more than one ternary acid. These ternary acids differ in the number of oxygen atoms they contain. The suffixes -ous and -ic following the stem name of the central element indicate lower and higher oxidation states, respectively. One common ternary acid of each nonmetal is (somewhat arbitrarily) designated as the -ic acid. That is, it is named by putting the element stem before the -ic suffix. The common ternary -ic acids are shown in Table 4-16. It is important to learn the names and formulas of these acids, because the names of all other ternary acids and salts are derived from them. There are no common -ic ternary acids for the omitted nonmetals. 

Ternary acids that have one fewer O atom than the -ous acids (two fewer O atoms than the -ic acids) are named using the prefix hypo- and the suffix -ous. These are acids in which the oxidation state of the central nonmetal is lower by 2 than that of the central nonmetal in the -ous acids. ... 

Ternary salts are compounds that result from replacing the hydrogen in a ternary acid with another ion. They usually contain metal cations or the ammonium ion. As with binary compounds, the cation is named first. The name of the anion is based on the name of the ternary acid from which it is derived. 

An anion derived from a ternary acid with an -ic ending is named by dropping the -ic acid and replacing it with -ate. An anion derived from an -ous acid is named by replacing the suffix -ous acid with -ite. The per- and hypo- prefixes are retained. 

The following table might help you to remember the names of the ternary acids and their ions. First learn the formulas of the acids mentioned earUer that end with -ic acid. Then relate possible other acids to the following table. The stem (XXX) represents the stem of the name, for example, nitr, sulfur, or chlor. ... 

What are ternary acids Write names and formulas for four of them. 

Table 3.5 Formulas and Names of Common Binary and Ternary Acids...

Ternary compounds are also named by citing the more electropositive constituent first. The various oxidation states of the more electropositive element are designated by a system of prefixes and terminations added to a stem characteristic of the element, except in the case of coordination compounds (qv). Examples are as follows (see Chlorine oxygen acids and salts) ... 

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