Question

What is the name of the ionic compound `"N"_2"S"_4"`?

Answer 1

`"N"_2"S"_4"` is a binary covalent compound, not an ionic compound and it's name is dinitrogen tetrasulfide.

Nitrogen and sulfur do not form an ionic compound. The electronegativity difference between them is 0.48, which makes the N-S bond barely polar covalent. Ionic bonds have an electronegativity difference greater than 1.6.

If `"N"_2"S"_4"` were an ionic compound, it's name would be nitrogen sulfide because the subscripts are not named.

`"N"_2"S"_4"` is a binary covalent compound, so it's name is dinitrogen tetrasulfide. The Greek prefixes refer to the subscripts, which indicate the number of atoms of each element in one molecule of the compound, or the number of moles of each element in one mole of the compound.