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In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is the simplest whole number ratio of atoms present in a compound. [1] A simple example of this concept is that the empirical formula of sulfur monoxide , or SO, is simply SO, as is the empirical formula of disulfur dioxide , S 2 O 2 .
An example of the difference is the empirical formula for glucose, which is CH 2 O (ratio 1:2:1), while its molecular formula is C 6 H 12 O 6 (number of atoms 6:12:6). For water, both formulae are H 2 O. A molecular formula provides more information about a molecule than its empirical formula, but is more difficult to establish.
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This is a list of common chemical compounds with chemical formulae and CAS numbers, indexed by formula. This complements alternative listing at list of inorganic compounds. There is no complete list of chemical compounds since by nature the list would be infinite.
A molecular formula enumerates the number of atoms to reflect those in the molecule, so that the molecular formula for glucose is C 6 H 12 O 6 rather than the glucose empirical formula, which is CH 2 O. Except for the very simple substances, molecular chemical formulas generally lack needed structural information, and might even be ambiguous in ...
Non-stoichiometric compounds are chemical compounds, almost always solid inorganic compounds, having elemental composition whose proportions cannot be represented by a ratio of small natural numbers (i.e. an empirical formula); most often, in such materials, some small percentage of atoms are missing or too many atoms are packed into an ...
The formula does not consider the internal shell structure of the nucleus. The semi-empirical mass formula therefore provides a good fit to heavier nuclei, and a poor fit to very light nuclei, especially 4 He. For light nuclei, it is usually better to use a model that takes this shell structure into account.
In most cases the formula representing a formula unit will also be an empirical formula, such as calcium carbonate (CaCO 3) or sodium chloride (NaCl), but it is not always the case. For example, the ionic compounds potassium persulfate ( K 2 S 2 O 8 ), mercury(I) nitrate Hg 2 (NO 3 ) 2 , and sodium peroxide Na 2 O 2 , have empirical formulas of ...