Sunday, June 23, 2024

Oxoacids and their anions

Many of the chemical names referred today to as “common” or “trivial” — as opposed to “systematic” — at the time were very much systematic. Many of them, in fact, remain systematic because there is a system behind them.

Observe the structure (a):

(a)
  1. H2SO4
    [SO2(OH)2]
    sulfuric acid (common)
    dihydroxidodioxidosulfur (additive)

Its molecular formula, H2SO4, is probably the second most-known formula in the world after H2O. We can rewrite it as [SO2(OH)2]. There’s nothing easier than to create a completely systematic additive name for (a): dihydroxidodioxidosulfur. However, almost nobody uses this name because there is much more famous one: sulfuric acid.