By analogy with the oxoanions of sulfur, H2TeO3 would be named?

1 Answer
Mar 29, 2015

Tellurous acid. The salts would be called tellurite.

When an element has two oxidation states (valencies) the lower one has an -ous ending and the higher one an -ic ending.
The salts of these acids are called -ite and -ate respectively.

Sulfuric acid H2SO4 vs. sulfurous acid H2SO3
Sulfate SO2+4 vs. sulfite SO+23

This used to be common also with metal ions:
Iron(II) used to be called ferrous
Iron(III) used to be called ferric

There is a problem when there are more than two possibilities. In this case the prefixes hypo (=under), (hy)per (=above) could be used, like with the oxo-chlorin anions:

ClO hypoclorite
ClO2 chlorite
ClO3 chlorate
ClO4 (hy)perclorate

The official names for these are now:
monoxo-, dioxo-, trioxo- and tetroxo- chlorate.