Improving the Understanding of Chemistry by Using the Right Words: Employing Inorganic Formulas to Convey Chemical Structure

In our previous work, we introduced a new notation system for chemical formulas that was intended to address common misconceptions in chemistry education. This notation helps to clarify the differences between chemical entities and species, which is often a challenge for students and educators. We recommend writing molecular substances always as molecular formulas and never as empirical formulas, and chemical species considering their structure, using slashes (//) to indicate layered structures, and curly brackets ({}) for reticulums to enhance the comprehension of chemical structures in educational contexts. For example, boron trichloride is noted as BCl3, gallium trichloride as Ga2Cl6, aluminum trichloride as /AlCl3/, and sodium chloride as {NaCl}. We now propose to expand this notation by incorporating coordination numbers. In general, we propose the substance /AmBn/ is a layered structure, and {AmBn} is a reticulum in which A has a coordination number of n, and B has a coordination number of m. Thus, chemical formulas can provide deeper insights into the crystalline structures of both mono- and polyelemental substances. Our testing with professors and students demonstrated that this approach significantly improves our understanding of chemical structures. Furthermore, we discuss the scope and limitations of this notation system, acknowledging its potential shortcomings when applied to more complex structures, such as wollastonite, and the limitation of distinguishing among the different titanium oxide structures. Nonetheless, this refined notation system holds promise for advancing the study of solid-state chemistry and enhancing the teaching of advanced inorganic chemistry courses.