A 

chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many

identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical
element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element is
therefore not a compound. A compound can be transformed into a different substance by a chemical
reaction, which may involve interactions with other substances. In this process, bonds between
atoms may be broken and/or new bonds formed.
There are four major types of compounds, distinguished by how the constituent atoms are bonded
together. Molecular compounds are held together by covalent bonds; ionic compounds are held
together by ionic bonds; intermetallic compounds are held together by metallic bonds; coordination
complexes are held together by coordinate covalent bonds. Non-stoichiometric compounds form a
disputed marginal case.
A chemical formula specifies the number of atoms of each element in a compound molecule, using
the standard chemical symbols with numerical subscripts. Many chemical compounds have a
unique CAS number identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service. Globally, more than
350,000 chemical compounds (including mixtures of chemicals) have been registered for production
and use.[1]
Any substance consisting of two or more different types of atoms (chemical elements) in a
fixed stoichiometric proportion can be termed a chemical compound; the concept is most readily
understood when considering pure chemical substances.[2]: 15  [3][4] It follows from their being composed
of fixed proportions of two or more types of atoms that chemical compounds can be converted,
via chemical reaction, into compounds or substances each having fewer atoms.[5] A chemical
formula is a way of expressing information about the proportions of atoms that constitute a particular
chemical compound, using chemical symbols for the chemical elements, and subscripts to indicate
the number of atoms involved. For example, water is composed of two hydrogen atoms bonded to
one oxygen atom: the chemical formula is H2O. In the case of non-stoichiometric compounds, the
proportions may be reproducible with regard to their preparation, and give fixed proportions of their
component elements, but proportions that are not integral [e.g., for palladium hydride, PdHx (0.02 < x
< 0.58)].[6]
Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure held together in a defined
spatial arrangement by chemical bonds. Chemical compounds can be molecular compounds held
together by covalent bonds, salts held together by ionic bonds, intermetallic compounds held
together by metallic bonds, or the subset of chemical complexes that are held together by coordinate
covalent bonds.[7] Pure chemical elements are generally not considered chemical compounds, failing
the two or more atom requirement, though they often consist of molecules composed of multiple
atoms (such as in the diatomic molecule H2, or the polyatomic molecule S8, etc.).
[7]
 Many chemical compounds have a unique numerical identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts
Service (CAS): its CAS number.
There is varying and sometimes inconsistent nomenclature differentiating substances, which include
truly non-stoichiometric examples, from chemical compounds, which require the fixed ratios. Many
solid chemical substances—for example many silicate minerals—are chemical substances, but do
not have simple formulae reflecting chemically bonding of elements to one another in fixed ratios;
even so, these crystalline substances are often called "non-stoichiometric compounds". It may be
argued that they are related to, rather than being chemical compounds, insofar as the variability in
their compositions is often due to either the presence of foreign elements trapped within the crystal
structure of an otherwise known true chemical compound, or due to perturbations in structure
relative to the known compound that arise because of an excess of deficit of the constituent
elements at places in its structure; such non-stoichiometric substances form most of
the crust and mantle of the Earth. Other compounds regarded as chemically identical may have
varying amounts of heavy or light isotopes of the constituent elements, which changes the ratio of
elements by mass slightly.