Nomenclature II

In contrast, two non-metals can combine in a variety of compounds by using different patterns of electron-sharing. This, there are two well-known binary compounds of carbon and oxygen, CO (carbon monoxide) and CO2 (carbon dioxide). Likewise, there are several binary compounds of nitrogen and oxygen: NO (nitrogen monoxide), N2O3 (dinitrogen trioxide), N2O4 (dinitrogen tetraoxide) and N2O5 (dinitrogen pentaoxide). In naming these (and other) binary compounds of non-metals, one gives the name of the less active non-metal first. (Recall that non-metal activity increases from left to right across a period and from bottom to top in a family of a Periodic Table). The pattern for naming binary compounds of non-metals is: