Hi everyone! I am an English learner and I would like to know how do people name intermetallic compounds. For example, Mg₂Si is "magnesium silicide". Then what is the name of AlCu? How to add "-ide" to copper?

Hi everyone! I am an English learner and I would like to know how do people name intermetallic compounds. For example, Mg₂Si is "magnesium silicide". Then what is the name of AlCu? How to add "-ide" to copper?

 

Neither the Al or Cu will actually form an anion so no atom gets the "-ide" designation. This is an alloy, and technically you could change it's identity by varying the amounts of each metal in the alloy so you can't really treat it as a distinct molecule or stoichiometric salt.

Thank you for replying. I know actually they don't form an anion. But in alloys I constantly meet something like "AlCu". Al "anion" is called "Aluminide". I didn't find anything for Cu. I just want to know how to read things like "AlCu".

Neither the Al or Cu will actually form an anion so no atom gets the "-ide" designation. This is an alloy, and technically you could change it's identity by varying the amounts of each metal in the alloy so you can't really treat it as a distinct molecule or stoichiometric salt.

If it exists it's a cupride

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_nomenclature_of_inorganic_chemistry_2005

Thank you! Unexpectedly, it is Latin root + "-ide". I could comfortably read stuff like "AlCu" now, although wikipedia does not provide complete nomenclatures for every element.

If it exists it's a cupride

http://en.wikipedia...._chemistry_2005

If it exists it's a cupride

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_nomenclature_of_inorganic_chemistry_2005

 

That's interesting and surprising.

 

Do you think that suggests that there are actual copper anions in the lattice? Or is that just a naming convention based on electonegativity?

I don't know about copper, but there are real gold compounds of that nature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium_auride

http://www2.fkf.mpg.de/jansen/p150/english/aurides.html