What is the name of the compound that has the formula #PCl_3#?

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Answer 1 · 2016-08-09T00:25:11

Phosphorus trichloride

When naming binary covalent compounds (compounds that are composed of 2 different nonmetals), you want to:

Name the first element. You can obtain the name directly from the periodic table. The symbol, P, tells us that we are dealing with the element phosphorus
Name the second element by using its root name and change the ending to -ide. The symbol, Cl, tells us that we have the element chlorine. So what you want to do is keep the root name (chlor) and change the -ine ending to -ide.
Then you add Greek prefixes to indicate the number of atoms that you have of that element:
The subscript that is in front of Cl tells us that we have 3 chlorine atoms, so we place the prefix (tri-) before the name of the second element.

Thus, #PCl_3# is phosphorus trichloride!

I hope this explanation makes sense!