Compounds Flashcards

All 5 cards in this deck

What is a compound?

A substance containing two or more elements chemically combined in fixed proportions.

How can a compound be separated into its elements?

Only by chemical reactions.

True or false? A compound can be separated into its elements by a physical process such as filtration.

False. Physical processes only separate mixtures; compounds need chemical reactions.

What does a compound name ending in '-ate' tell you?
e.g. copper sulfate

It contains oxygen as well as the other elements named — copper, sulfur and oxygen.

What does a small subscript number in a formula tell you?
e.g. the 2 in $CO_2$

The number of atoms of the element it follows — 2 oxygen atoms per carbon atom.