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Parent hydride

physical science Maturity 11-13 Next article →

Scientists use special names for certain compounds. These are called parent hydrides. A parent hydride is a main group compound. It uses one main element and hydrogen. The names of these things end in -ane. This is like how we name alkanes.

We can change these names to show new parts. We add prefixes or suffixes to the name. This tells us which hydrogen atoms were replaced. These names help in two ways of naming. One way is for organic chemistry. The other way is for inorganic chemistry.

Many parent hydrides are not stable. This means they may not stay together. Some do not exist at all. Some only exist under special conditions. Borane is one example. It can dimerize, which means it joins with another. Gallane and others can polymerize. This means they form long chains. They sometimes lose hydrogen during this change. Some types like plumbane are very unstable.

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