Naming Molecular Compounds

Amazingly, there are two hundred and seventeen different compounds known that have the formula C6H6. With so many possible combinations for one simple formula, you can begin to see that the naming of a compound can be a complicated issue. In this topic, you only viewed a very small portion of named compounds. Lucky for scientists, there are huge data banks that enable them to obtain information on the naming of a particular compound.

Of course, scientists are not the only people who may need access to information about identifying a compound. A hazardous materials team may need to know about some toxic material that was spilled or released into the environment. Hospitals and poison control centers might also need information about a chemical in order to choose a medical treatment for a patient. When naming molecular compounds, prefixes are used to indicate the number of atoms of each element. It is not possible to determine the formula for molecular compounds from their position on the periodic table because nonmetals are capable of sharing one, two, or even three pairs of electrons, making the possible combinations very large.