Is hydroxide #""^(-)"OH"# or #"HO"^(-)#?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Jan 1, 2017

It doesn't matter.

Depending on how you draw an entire molecule that contains #""^(-)"OH"#, you may want to draw it as #"HO"^(-)# to emphasize that that's how the structure is drawn, but there is no set rule saying it must be #""^(-)"OH"# instead of #"HO"^(-)#.

Examples:

You can write methanol as #"CH"_3"OH"# to emphasize that the #-"OH"# is drawn as #-"O"-"H"# instead of #"H"-"O"-#:

Or, you can write ethanediol as #"HOCH"_2"CH"_2"OH"# to emphasize that the structure is #"H"-"O"-"CH"_2-"CH"_2-"O"-"H"#:

Related questions
See all questions in Covalent Formulas and Nomenclature
Impact of this question
5891 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License