IUPACNomenclature Inorganic Chemistry:

The IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry is a systematic method of naming inorganic chemical compounds as recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Ideally, every inorganic compound should have a name from which an unambiguous formula can be determined. There is also an IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry.

The names "caffeine" and "3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione" both signify the same chemical. The systematic name encodes the structure and composition of the caffeine molecule in some detail, and provides an unambiguous reference to this compound, whereas the name "caffeine" just names it. These advantages make the systematic name far superior to the common name when absolute clarity and precision are required. However, for the sake of brevity, even professional chemists will use the non-systematic name almost all of the time, because caffeine is a well-known common chemical with a unique structure. Similarly, H2O is most often simply called water in English, though other chemical names do exist.

Single atom anions are named with an -ide suffix: for example, H- is hydride.

Compounds with a positive ion (cation), the name of the compound is simply the cation's name (usually the same as the element's), followed by the anion. For example, NaCl is sodium chloride, and CaF2 is calcium fluoride.

Cations able to take on more than one positive charge are labeled with Roman numerals in parentheses. For example, Cu+ is copper(I), Cu2 + is copper(II). An older, deprecated notation is to append -ous or -ic to the root of the Latin name to name ions with a lesser or greater charge. Under this naming convention, Cu+ is cuprous and Cu2+ is cupric. For naming metal complexes see the page on complex (chemistry).

Oxyanions (polyatomic anions containing oxygen) are named with -ite or -ate, for a lesser or greater quantity of oxygen. For example, NO2- is nitrite, while NO3- is nitrate. If four oxyanions are possible, the prefixes hypo- and per- are used: hypochlorite is ClO-, perchlorate is ClO4-,

The prefix bi- is a deprecated way of indicating the presence of a single hydrogen ion, as in "sodium bicarbonate" (NaHCO3). The modern method specifically names the hydrogen atom.

Thus, NaHCO3 would be pronounced "sodium hydrogen carbonate".

Positively charged ions are called cations and negatively charged ions are called anions. The cation is always named first. Ions can be metals or polyatomic ions. Therefore the name of the metal or positive polyatomic ion is followed by the name of the non-metal or negative polyatomic ion. The positive ion retains its element name whereas for a single non-metal anion the ending is changed to -ide.

Example: sodium chloride, potassium oxide, or calcium carbonate.