Dear Students of Chemistry:

Thank you (most of you) for your timely responses to my e-mail. Future contact from me will be via this Blog or Remind. So, stay tuned.

The last question: When you combine oxygen and sodium they form an ionic compound. What is the formula and name of this compound?

The answer: Na2O is called sodium oxide. The “2” should be subscripted, but I cannot do that on this blog…yet.

Our new question: Sodium oxide is an ionic compound because it transfers electrons to make two oppositely charged ions that that are pulled together electrostatically. However, some elements combine by sharing electrons. We call these covalent compounds “molecules”.

New question to answer via Remind: What is the name and formula of the compound that contains one carbon and four chlorine atoms?