Know your sulfates from your sulfites, and your chlorates from your perchlorates? This graphic gives a helping hand with remembering the names, formulae and charges of various different polyatomic ions. The selection covers all of the ions GCSE students are likely to come across, as well as the vast majority of those that will be encountered by A level students.
If you’re a chemist, the different types of formulae for organic compounds are all second nature. But if you’re not well-versed in chemistry, all of those lines and letters might well be a bit perplexing. Here’s a brief explanation of what they mean.