Final answer:
Polyatomic ions are ions that contain more than one type of atom and have an overall electric charge. The suffixes -ate and -ite are used to indicate polyatomic ions that contain oxygen in combination with another non-metal.
Step-by-step explanation:
Polyatomic ions are ions that contain more than one type of atom and have an overall electric charge. The suffixes -ate and -ite are used to indicate polyatomic ions that contain oxygen in combination with another non-metal. The suffix -ide is used for negatively-charged polyatomic ions that do not contain oxygen.
For example, the nitrate ion (NO3¯) and the sulfate ion (SO4²-) are both polyatomic anions, but the nitrate ion ends in -ate and contains three oxygen atoms, while the sulfate ion ends in -ate and contains four oxygen atoms.
The names and charges of polyatomic ions should be memorized as they do not follow a consistent pattern.
The suffixes that indicate we have a polyatomic ion are -ate and -ite. These suffixes are used for oxyanions, which are polyatomic anions containing oxygen.
The ion with more oxygen atoms is given the suffix -ate, while the one with fewer oxygen atoms receives -ite. For example, nitrate (NO3⁻) and sulfate (SO4²⁻) have the suffix -ate indicating they have more oxygen atoms compared to their -ite counterparts, nitrite (NO2⁻) and sulfite (SO3²⁻) respectively.
Prefixes such as per- and hypo- are also used to denote the relative number of oxygen atoms within the series of oxyanions. However, the number of oxygen atoms corresponding to each suffix isn't consistent across different elements, therefore memorization of these ions is necessary