Question

Write the chemical name of the following compound.

(f) ${\mathrm{CuCO}}_3$

Answer 1

Step 1: Identifying the cation and anion

• ${\mathrm{CuCO}}_3$ is an ionic compound that completely dissociates into its ions in an aqueous solution.
• The dissociation reaction can be represented as:

$\underset{}{{\mathrm{CuCO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Copper}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{Cu}}^{2+}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Carbonate}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{CO}}_3^{2-}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

• The chemical name of positive radical ${\mathrm{Cu}}^{2+}$ is cuprous or copper(II) ion and of negative radical ${\mathrm{CO}}_3^{2-}$ is carbonate.

Step 2: Naming of Ionic compound

• The name of the positive radical or metal ion is written first followed by the negative radical while writing the name of the compound.
• Hence, the chemical name of ${\mathrm{CuCO}}_3$ is copper(II) carbonate.