Introduction
Acids are everywhere in chemistry — from the HCl in your stomach to the H₂SO₄ in car batteries. To talk about them clearly, chemists need a consistent naming system. As IUPAC itself emphasises, one of the main jobs of a global naming system is to make names unambiguous and consistent across the whole scientific community (Talbot, p.172). This lesson focuses on how we name inorganic acids — a small but important corner of that system.
Two Main Types of Inorganic Acids
Inorganic acids split into two families, and each has its own naming pattern.
1. Binary (hydracids) — no oxygen
These acids are made of hydrogen plus one other (usually non-metal) element. The naming pattern is:
hydro- + (element stem) + -ic acid
Examples:
- HCl → hydrochloric acid
- HBr → hydrobromic acid
- H₂S → hydrosulfuric acid
Notice: when these compounds are dissolved in water and acting as acids, they get the "hydro-...-ic acid" treatment. (As a pure gas, HCl is