The section of the card outlined in red shows a box containing the chemical formula, chemical name, and mineral or common name. The star (*) in the top right-hand corner indicates that the data is of the highest quality.

©ICDD 1967. Used with permission from the International Centre for Diffraction Data.

  The nomenclature of the chemical names for the material identification follows, in general, the 1957 IUPAC Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry:

• The names for monatomic anions is based on the element name with the ending -ide,

  e.g. O^2- is oxide;

• The names of certain polyatomic anions also have names ending in -ide,

  e.g. OH^- is hydroxide;

• The suffix -ate is applied to anions formed from B, C, N, F, Si, P, S, Cl, As, Br, Te, I and oxygen, e.g.

  e.g. SO₄^2- is sulfate (spelt with an f);

• The suffix -ite is allowed for a few special cases (as a result of common usage) for lower oxidation state anions,

  e.g. NO₂^- is nitrite;

• Radicals or cations containing oxygen are treated as the positive part of a compound name and have endings in -yl,

  e.g. UO₂ is uranyl;

• Anions with elements other than oxygen are given in terms of constituent elements,

  e.g. PF₆⁻ is phosphorous fluoride,

  with the exception of a few common cases,

  e.g. CNO is cyanate,

• Prefixes indicating oxidation state (e.g. hypo) or water content (e.g. meso) are not used.

Cations are ordered according to group number within the periodic table and are followed by anions, e.g. Sodium Magnesium Iron Sulfate and not Magnesium Sodium Iron Sulfate.

Back