Thursday, February 28, 2013

Learning Target for Acid Chemical Formulas

Acid Chemical Formulas

When writing a chemical formula for an acid such as sulfuric acid or hychloric acid, remember that the chemical formula will always have an H (hydrogen) in it.

Example: Sulfuric Acid
     Sulfate: SO4
*Add a Hydrogen* HSO4
The same rule applies for acids for knowing how many atoms of each element or compound there is supposed to be. Sulfate's charge is -1 and Hydrogen's charge is +1 so then there is only one atom of Hydrogen and only one atom of Sulfate in the chemical formula. Here is an example for if the element or compound has a different charge than hydrogen.


Example: Phosphoric Acid
      Phosphate: PO4
      Phosphoric Acid: H3PO4
Since Phosphate's charge is -3 and Hydrogen's charge is -1, there must be 3 hydrogen atoms in the chemical formula so the charges are equal to 0. 

On writing a formula name for an acid, if their is a polyatomic ion in the chemical formula, the acid will not have hydro- in front of the name. If there is only a monotomic ion in the formula, then the acid name will have hydro- in front. For example, hydrochloric acid has a monotomic ion (chloride) so therefore, the name has hydro- in front. Phosophoric Acid has a polyatomic ion (phosphate) so therefore the name does NOT have hydro- in front of it.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment