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- Dictionaryinorganic/ˌɪnɔːˈɡanɪk/
adjective
- 1. not consisting of or deriving from living matter.
- 2. relating to or denoting compounds which are not organic (broadly, compounds not containing carbon).
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1. a (1) : being or composed of matter other than plant or animal : mineral. (2) : forming or belonging to the inanimate world. b. : of, relating to, or dealt with by a branch of chemistry concerned with substances not usually classed as organic. 2. : not arising from natural growth : artificial. also : lacking structure, character, or vitality.
Inorganic means not being or consisting of living material, or relating to substances that do not contain living material. Learn more about the meaning, usage and examples of inorganic in chemistry and other contexts.
- Overview
- Binary ionic compounds
- Binary molecular (covalent) compounds
- Ionic compounds containing polyatomic ions
- Acids
- Compounds with complex ions
inorganic compound, any substance in which two or more chemical elements (usually other than carbon) are combined, nearly always in definite proportions. Compounds of carbon are classified as organic when carbon is bound to hydrogen. Carbon compounds such as carbides (e.g., silicon carbide [SiC2]), some carbonates (e.g., calcium carbonate [CaCO3]), some cyanides (e.g., sodium cyanide [NaCN]), graphite, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide are classified as inorganic.
Read about the differences between inorganic compounds and organic compounds in the article chemical compound.
Inorganic compounds include compounds that are made up of two or more elements other than carbon, as well as certain carbon-containing compounds that lack carbon-carbon bonds, such as cyanides and carbonates. Inorganic compounds are most often classified in terms of the elements or groups of elements that they contain. Oxides, for example, can be either ionic or molecular. Ionic oxides contain O2− (oxide) ions and metal cations, whereas molecular oxides contain molecules in which oxygen (O) is covalently bonded to other nonmetals such as sulfur (S) or nitrogen (N). When ionic oxides are dissolved in water, the O2− ions react with water molecules to form hydroxide ions (OH−), and a basic solution results. Molecular oxides react with water to produce oxyacids, such as sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3). In addition, inorganic compounds include hydrides (containing hydrogen atoms or H− ions), nitrides (containing N3− ions), phosphides (containing P3− ions), and sulfides (containing S2− ions).
Transition metals form a great variety of inorganic compounds. The most important of these are coordination compounds in which the metal atom or ion is surrounded by two to six ligands. Ligands are ions or neutral molecules with electron pairs that they can donate to the metal atom to form a coordinate-covalent bond.
The resulting covalent bond is given a special name because one entity (the ligand) furnishes both of the electrons that are subsequently shared in the bond. An example of a coordination compound is [Co(NH3)6]Cl3, which contains the Co(NH3)63+ ion, a cobalt ion (Co3+) with six ammonia molecules (NH3) attached to it, acting as ligands.
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The nomenclature for binary ionic compounds simply entails naming the ions according to the following rules:
1.The positive ion (called a cation) is named first and the negative ion (anion) second.
2.A simple cation (obtained from a single atom) takes its name from its parent element. For example, Li+ is called lithium in the names of compounds containing this ion. Similarly, Na+ is called sodium, Mg2+ is called magnesium, and so on.
3.A simple anion (obtained from a single atom) is named by taking the root of the parent element’s name and adding the suffix -ide. Thus, the F− ion is called fluoride, Br− is called bromide, S2− is called sulfide, and so on.
The following examples illustrate the nomenclature rules for binary ionic compounds:
In the formulas of ionic compounds, simple ions are represented by the chemical symbol for the element: Cl means Cl−, Na means Na+, and so on. When individual ions are shown, however, the charge is always included. Thus, the formula of potassium bromide is given as KBr, but, when the potassium and bromide ions are shown individually, they are written K+ and Br−.
Binary molecular (covalent) compounds are formed as the result of a reaction between two nonmetals. Although there are no ions in these compounds, they are named in a similar manner to binary ionic compounds. The nomenclature of binary covalent compounds follows these rules:
1.The first element in the formula is given first, using the element’s full name.
2.The second element is named as if it were an anion.
3.Prefixes are used to denote the numbers of atoms present. If the first element exists as a single atom, the prefix mono- is omitted. For example, CO is called carbon monoxide rather than monocarbon monoxide.
These examples show how the rules are applied for the covalent compounds formed by nitrogen and oxygen:
To avoid awkward pronunciations, the final o or a of the prefix is often dropped when the element name begins with a vowel. For example, N2O4 is referred to as dinitrogen tetroxide, not dinitrogen tetraoxide, and CO is called carbon monoxide, not carbon monooxide.
A special type of ionic compound is exemplified by ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), which contains two polyatomic ions, NH4+ and NO3−. As the name suggests, a polyatomic ion is a charged entity composed of several atoms bound together. Polyatomic ions have special names that are used in the nomenclature of the compounds containing them.
Several series of polyatomic anions exist that contain an atom of a given element in combination with different numbers of oxygen atoms. Such anions are called oxy anions. When the series contains only two members, the name of the ion with fewer oxygen atoms ends in -ite, and the name of the other ion ends in -ate. For example, SO32− is called sulfite and SO42− is called sulfate. In those cases where more than two oxy anions constitute the series, hypo- (less than) and per- (more than) are used as prefixes to name the members of the series with the smallest and the largest number of oxygen atoms, respectively. The chlorine-containing oxy anions provide an example:
An acid can be thought of as a molecule containing at least one hydrogen cation (H+) attached to an anion. The nomenclature of acids depends on whether the anion contains oxygen. If the anion does not contain oxygen, the acid is named with the prefix hydro- and the suffix -ic. For example, HCl dissolved in water is called hydrochloric acid. Likewise, HCN and H2S dissolved in water are called hydrocyanic and hydrosulfuric acids, respectively.
If the anion of the acid contains oxygen, the name is formed by adding the suffix -ic or -ous to the root name of the anion. If the anion name ends in -ate, the -ate is replaced by -ic (or sometimes -ric). For example, H2SO4 contains the sulfate anion (SO42−) and is called sulfuric acid; H3PO4 contains the phosphate anion (PO43−) and is called phosphoric acid; and HC2H3O2, which contains the acetate ion (C2H3O2−), is called acetic acid. For anions with an -ite ending, the -ite is replaced by -ous in naming the acid. For example, H2SO3, which contains sulfite (SO32−), is called sulfurous acid; and HNO2, which contains nitrite (NO2−), is named nitrous acid. The acids of the oxy anions of chlorine are used here to illustrate the rules for naming acids with oxygen-containing cations.
A coordination compound is composed of one or more complex structural units, each of which has a central atom bound directly to a surrounding set of groups called ligands. The nomenclature of coordination compounds is based on these structural relationships.
INORGANIC meaning: 1. not being or consisting of living material, or (of chemical substances) containing no carbon or…. Learn more.
Inorganic chemistry is the branch of chemistry that deals with the properties and reactions of inorganic compounds, such as salts, acids, bases, and metals. Learn the history, perspectives, and practice problems of inorganic chemistry from this open-source textbook.
Inorganic means not having the structure or characteristics of living organisms, or relating to chemical compounds that do not contain carbon. Learn more about the origin, usage, and contrast of inorganic with organic.
Inorganic substances are substances that do not come from living things, such as stone and metal. Learn more about the meaning, synonyms, pronunciation, and usage of inorganic in different contexts and fields.
