Why do certain elements and compounds have Roman numerals behind them i.e. copper (II) sulphate (VI)?
In: Chemistry
Some chemicals, typically metals can have different numbers of bonds. One is vanadium which can bond to oxygen and make VO2 or VO4 or VO6
We could give each of these a different names, but doing so would require memorizing a lot of different compound names. Instead, we used the Roman numerals to explain the amount of electrons bonded. VO2 would be vanadium (II) oxide and we can use this to easily differntiate names
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