COMPOUNDS USING

CHEMICAL FORMULAS,
STRUCTURAL FORMULAS AND
MODELS
CHEMICAL FORMULA
A CHEMICAL FORMULA is an expression that
shows the elements in a compound and the
relative proportions of those elements. Water is
composed of hydrogen and oxygen in a 2:1
ratio. The chemical formula for water is 𝐻2 𝑂.
Sulfuric acid is one of the most widely produced
chemicals in the United States and is composed
of the elements hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen.
The chemical formula for sulfuric acid is 𝐻2 𝑆𝑂4 .
Certaingroups of atoms are bonded
together to form what is called a
polyatomic ion that act as a single unit.
Polyatomic ions are enclosed in
parenthesis followed by a subscript if
more than one of the same ion exist in
a chemical formula
THE FORMULA CA3(PO4)2 REPRESENTS A
COMPOUND WITH THE FOLLOWING:

3 Ca atoms
+ 2 PO43- ions
 Tocount the total number of atoms for formulas with
polyatomic ions enclosed in parenthesis, use the subscript
as a multiplier for each atom or number of atoms.
Ca3(PO4)2
3 Ca + 2 x1 P + 2 x 4 O = 3 Ca atoms + 2 P atoms + 8 O atoms
STRUCTURAL FORMULA

As the name tells you, the structural

formula provides an idea of how the
atoms in the molecule or the compound
are arranged along with their bond
formations.
MODELS

 Using
ball-and-stick models To show how
atoms are arranged in substances, scientists
use ball-and-stick models.
MOLECULAR FORMULA

A molecular formula is a chemical

formula of a molecular
compound that shows the kinds
and numbers of atoms present in
a molecule of the compound.
Ammonia is a compound of
nitrogen and hydrogen as shown
below:
EMPIRICAL FORMULA

 Empirical formulas are the simplest form of

formulas that we can write for a molecule. It
shows the type of atoms in the molecule, but it
doesn’t give the real number of each atom.
Rather, it gives the simplest integer ratio of
each atom of the molecule.
 For example, C6H12O6 is the molecular formula
of glucose, and CH2O is its empirical formula.
Mostly, we give empirical formulas for ionic
compounds, which are in the crystalline form.
For instance, we cannot say the exact
number of Na and Cl in a NaCl crystal. So we
just write the empirical formula denoting the
ratio of connected atoms.
DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES
BETWEEN EMPIRICAL FORMULA
AND MOLECULAR FORMULA OF A
COMPOUND
DIFFERENCE

The key difference between empirical

and molecular formulas is that
an empirical formula only gives the
simplest ratio of atoms whereas a
molecular formula gives the exact
number of each atom in a molecule.
SIMILARITIES

Amolecular formula is identical to the empirical formula, and is

based on quantity of atoms of each type in the compound.

The relationship between empirical and molecular formula is that

the empirical formula is the simplest formula, and the molecular
can be the same as the empirical, or some multiple of it. An
example might be an empirical formula of C3H8. Its
molecular formula may be C3H8 , C6H16, C9H24, etc. Looking at it
the other way, if the molecular formula is C6H12O6, the empirical
formula would be CH2O.