Question

If an element has more than one ionic charge, how is that piece of information represented in a chemical name?

Answer 1

Hint:The transition elements consist of highly reactive metals which have a great tendency to combine with other elements and form various compounds or complexes. In these complexes so formed, often an element has more than one ionic charge or simply a charge which is represented by Roman notation or roman numeral.

Complete step-by-step answer:As we have already seen that transition metals reacts with other reactive elements and forms compounds or complexes.
Let us explain the concept with the help of an example.
Consider a compound $CuC{{l}_{2}}$ formed after the reaction of the copper and chlorine. We know that a chlorine atom has -1 charge. Since, there are two chlorine atoms in the compound $CuC{{l}_{2}}$ therefore, the total negative charge will be -2.
Now, we know that a compound as a whole should be neutral. There is a total of -2 charge in the compound $CuC{{l}_{2}}$,hence in order to maintain the neutrality copper in the compound will acquire opposite and equal charge. Therefore, charge on copper in the compound $CuC{{l}_{2}}$ will be +2.
This can be represented in the form of Roman numeral as shown below:
Copper $\left( II \right)$ chloride or in words as copper two chloride.
Hence, roman numeral form is often used to represent the charge.

Note:The roman numeral form also gives information about the oxidation number or the oxidation state of a particular element and so one should calculate it with proper rules as laid in the concept of redox reaction and oxidation number.