Question

Fluorine forms a binary ionic compound with lithium. During the reaction, a lithium atom transfers an electron to fluorine. What is the name of this compound?
lithium fluoride

fluorine lithium

fluorine lithide

Answer 1

Answer: lithium fluoride

Explanation: Lithium atom has oxidation number of +1.

Electronic configuration of lithium:

$[Li]:3:1s^22s^1$

Lithium atom will loose one electron to gain noble gas configuration and form lithium cation with +1 charge.

$[Li^+]:2:1s^2$

Fluorine atom has oxidation number of -1.

Electronic configuration of fluorine:

$[F]:9:1s^22s^22p^5$

Flourine atom will gain one electron to gain noble gas configuration and form fluoride ion with -1 charge.

$[F^-]:10:1s^22s^22p^63s^23p^6$

In lithium fluoride the one electron from lithium metal gets transferred to fluorine atom to form $LiF$.

The nomenclature of ionic compounds is given by:

1. Positive ion is written first.

2. The negative ion is written next and a suffix is added at the end of the negative ion. The suffix written is '-ide'.

Hence, the name of $LiF$ is lithium fluoride.

Answer 2

Lithium is the metal and fluorine is the electron acceptor, so lithium fluoride.