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An ionic compound is a chemical compound composed of ions held together by electrostatic forces termed ionic bonding. The compound is neutral overall, but consists of positively charged ions called cations and negatively charged ions called anions .
All compounds are substances, but not all substances are compounds. A chemical compound can be either atoms bonded together in molecules or crystals in which atoms, molecules or ions form a crystalline lattice. Compounds based primarily on carbon and hydrogen atoms are called organic compounds, and all others are called inorganic compounds.
Chemical formulas can be used to describe the relative amounts of elements present in a compound. For example, the chemical formula for water is H 2 O: this means that each molecule of water is constituted by 2 atoms of hydrogen (H) and 1 atom of oxygen (O).
In chemistry, a salt or ionic compound is a chemical compound consisting of an assembly of positively charged ions and negatively charged ions , [1] which results in a compound with no net electric charge (electrically neutral). The constituent ions are held together by electrostatic forces termed ionic bonds.
Organic compounds can also be classified or subdivided by the presence of heteroatoms, e.g., organometallic compounds, which feature bonds between carbon and a metal, and organophosphorus compounds, which feature bonds between carbon and a phosphorus.
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. [1] It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during reactions with other substances.
By some definitions, "organic" compounds are only required to contain carbon. However, most of them also contain hydrogen, and because it is the carbon-hydrogen bond that gives this class of compounds most of its particular chemical characteristics, carbon-hydrogen bonds are required in some definitions of the word "organic" in chemistry. [87]
An inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds — that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as inorganic chemistry .