Naming Hydrates

There are many solid compounds that release water when heated at fairly low temperatures. In these compounnds the water molecules are loosely bonded within the solid crystal at regular intervals.

A common example of a hydrate is:

CuSO4H20

copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate

The penta indicates five water molecules for each copper (II) sulphate particle and the " " indicates a weak bond between the CuSO4 and the five water molecules.

The table below shows the prefixes which are used to indicate the number of water molecules.

 mono one
 di two
tri three
tetra four
penta five
hexa six
hepta seven
octa eight
nona nine
deca ten

Remember...practice makes perfect!

1. zinc sulphate heptahydrate

2. copper (I) sulphite monohydrate

3. cobalt (II) fluoride tetrahydrate

4. lithium nitrate trihydrate

5. sodium sulphate decahydrate

6. calcium nitrate trihydrate

7. calcium sulphate hexahydrate

8. sodium phosphite tetrahydrate

9. aluminum hypochlorite octahydrate

10. cesium carbonite dihydrate

11. Na2SO4 10H2O

12. LiNO3 3H20

13. Cu2SO3 3H20

14. Ca(N03) 2 2H20

15. NaCl04 H20

16. MgS04 7H20

17. Cs2CO2 2H20

18. ZnS04 7 H20

19. Na3P03 4H20

20. Ni(N03) 2 6H20

Try the nomenclature test and hand it in to your teacher!

 

E-mail me and let me know how you did! dbilic@sympatico.ca

 

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