Writing the Formula of an Inorganic Salt

Organic chemistry deals with compounds of carbon.
Inorganic chemistry deals with compounds of any other element.
One of the earliest known classes of inorganic compounds were salts.
Salts are binary, ionic compounds, that is, salts are made up of two ions:

• a positively charged ion called a cation
• a negatively charged ion called an anion 

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is establishing rules to help us name, and write the formula, for compounds.
In an earlier tutorial we looked at how we name inorganic salts, in this tutorial we look at how to write the formula of an inorganic salt.

Naming Salts

How do you name a salt?
There are several different ways to name salts (binary inorganic ionic compounds).
The most common method used in school as an introduction to naming inorganic compounds is based on compositional nomenclature.
AUS-e-TUTE has a step-by-step guide to how to name a salt if you know the formula of the salt:
https://www.ausetute.com.au/namiform.html

IUPAC Name and Formula of Anions

How do you write the formula of an anion?
How do you use IUPAC nomenclature to name an anion?
AUS-e-TUTE has new resources to help you understand this and to help you apply these rules to writing formula and names of anions.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to use the interactive resources.
If you are not a member then you can access a "free-to-view" tutorial at
https://www.ausetute.com.au/anions.html

IUPAC Name and Formula of Cations

Naming chemical compounds can be a bit tricky. One of the biggest problems is that people started naming compounds before they understood what they were! And, the problem just gets bigger as we discover new classes of compounds.
Even naming simple binary inorganic ionic compounds (well ... salts!) can produce enormous headaches.
Well, we've started sorting through some of the mess, starting with a whole let new set of resources for writing the formula of cations and naming cations using the current IUPAC recommendations.
Members should log-in to AUS-e-TUTE to use the new resources, but if you are not a member you can go to the "free-to-view tutorial" at https://www.ausetute.com.au/cations.html

Gibbs Free Energy and Spontaneity of Reactions

Whether or not a chemical reaction proceeds in a particular direction depends on a balance between the enthalpy of the system and its entropy.
Gibbs Free Energy allows us to quantify this relationship, and determine whether a particular reaction will be spontaneous.
AUS-e-TUTE members can now access a new tutorial, game, test and exam on this topic.
Not a member?
There is a "free-to-view" tutorial currently available at http://www.ausetute.com.au/freeenergy.html