Mononuclear parent hydrides of elements of groups 13 to 17

Mononuclear hydrides of elements of groups 13 to 17 in the periodic table are named by composition, by a trivial name or by a name establishing them as parent hydrides to systematically specify their derivates via substitutive nomenclature. The following table lists the parent hydride names in alphabetical order along with the empirical formula and the standard bonding number (StBN). An alternate name, which is either a universally used named or a name derived from the compositional nomenclature, is given when it is frequently used.

All parent hydride names end with the suffix ane. Name derivation from the element name, however, is not always straightforward. Since indane is the name of the hydrocarbon compound 2,3-dihydroindene, InH₃ is named indigane instead. The expected names aluminane, bismane, oxane, thiane, selenane, tellurane and polane specify saturated six-membered heteromonocycles in the Hantzsch-Widman system. Hence, the hydride names for AlH₃, BiH₃, H₂O, H₂S, H₂Se, H₂Te and H₂Po differ, respectively.

Derivatives in which the number of hydrogen atoms and, therefore, the bonding number differs from StBN, are prefixed by the Greek letter λ with a superscripts for the non-standard bonding number, for example,

λ¹-arsane for AsH, or
λ⁶-sulfane for SH₆.

The names of homopolynuclear derivatives such as hydride chain molecules are build from hydride parent names by accounting for the chain length and by placing a locant in front of each λ term:

1λ⁶,3λ⁶-tetrasulfane for H₅SSSH₄SH

In this example, the multiplicative prefix ‘tetra’ specifies the chain length of four sulfur atoms. The term 1λ⁶ indicates a bond number of 6 for the first sulfur atom. The term 3λ⁶ indicates a bond number of 6 for the third sulfur atom. The second and fourth sulfur atom both have bond number 2, equal to the StBN of the mononuclear parent. Therefore, no assignment is required for these two sulfur atoms.

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