POLYATOMIC IONS

Poly means many. So, polyatomic ions are ones that have more than one atom. Na (sodium) is a mono-
atomic ion, while NH4 (ammonium) is a polyatomic ion as it has 5 atoms in total. Some more examples
of polyatomic ions are carbonate(CO₃²⁻), hydroxide(OH-), phosphate (PO₃⁴⁻), hypochlorite (OCl-), etc.

NAMING POLYATOMIC IONS

For polyatomic ions such as OH-, the word hydroxide is used. Generally, the ‘ide’ suffix is used for mono-
atomic ions, for example, chloride for Cl-.

For polyatomic ions, ‘ate’ or ‘ite’ suffixes are commonly used. For example, NO3- and NO₂- are named as
nitrite and nitrate, respectively. Also, ClO₂- is called chlorite and ClO₃- as chlorate. These are examples of
oxoanions. The oxoanion with fewer O atoms is given the suffix ‘ite’ while the one with more O atoms is
given ‘ate.’ ClO- hypochlorite, ClO₂- chlorite, ClO₃- chlorate, ClO₄- perchlorate

In these cases, the ion with more O atoms is given the prefix ‘per’ as ClO4- perchlorate, and the one with
fewer O atoms than its ‘ite’ counterpart is given the prefix ‘hypo’ as ClO- hypochlorite.