Molecular

Compounds
Baluran, John Imeren F.
Unlike ionic compounds,
molecular compounds contain
discrete molecular units. They are
usually composed of nonmetallic
elements. Many molecular com-
pounds are binary compounds.
Naming binary molecular
compounds is similar to naming
binary ionic compounds.
We place the name of the first
element in the formula first, and
the seconds element is named by
adding –ide to the root of the
element name. Some examples are:

HCI HBr
SiC
It is quite common for one pair
of elements to form several
different compounds. In these
cases, confusion is naming the
compounds is avoided by the
use of Greek prefixes to denote
the number of atoms of each
element present.
In Greek prefixes are used to denote
the no. of atoms present in a
molecule of a compounds.
Prefixes Mono = 1

Di = 2

Tri = 3
Tetra = 4 Octa = 8

Penta = 5 Nona = 9

Hexa = 6 Deca = 10

Hepta = 7
CO - carbon monoxide
CO₂ - carbon dioxide
SO₂ - sulfur dioxide
SO₃ - sulfur trioxide
NO₂ - nitrogen dioxide
N₂O₄ - dinitrogen tetroxide
The following guidelines are helpful
in naming compounds with prefixes:

• The prefix “mono”- may be

omitted for the first element. For
example, PCI₃, is named
phosphorus trichloride, not
monophosphorustrichloride.
• Thus, the absence of a prefix
for the first element usually
means there is only one atom
of that element present in the
molecule.
• For oxides, the ending “a” in
the prefix is somethimes
omitted. For example, N₂O₄
may be called dinitrogen
tetroxide rather than
dinitrogentetraoxide.
Exceptions to the use of Greek
prefixes are molecular
compounds containing hydrogen.
Traditionally, many of these
compounds are called either by
their common, nonsystematic
names or by names that do not
specifically indicate the number
of H atoms present:
B₂H₆ - diborane
CH₄ - methane
SiH₄ - silane
NH₃ - ammonia
PH₃ - phosphine
H₂O - water
H₂S – hydrogen sulphide
Note that even the order of
writing the elements in the
formulas for hydrogen
compounds is irregular. In
water and hydrogen sulfide,
H is written first, whereas it
appears last in the other
compounds.
Writing formulas for molecular
compounds is usually
straightforward. Thus, the name
arsenic trifluoride means that
there are one as atom and three F
atoms in each molecule, and the
molecule formula is AsF₃. Note
that the order of elements in the
formula is the same as in its name.