Which one is the best notation for sodium acetate

I have seen two different notations for sodium acetate. The first one is:

$$\text{NaCH}_3\text{COO}$$

The second one is:

$$\text{CH}_3\text{COONa}$$

Now I'm confused, which one is the best to use?

Answer

There is nothing wrong with either formula. And you can use even more:

• $\ce{NaC2H3O2}$



• $\ce{C2H3NaO2}$

It really depends on which point you want to bring across.

$$\ce{NaCH3COO}$$

This formula, being analogous to formulae like $\ce{NaCl}$ stresses the inorganic salt view more. It shows that there is a cation ($\ce{Na+}$) and an anion ($\ce{CH3COO-}$) which form a salt crystal together much like the anion $\ce{Cl-}$ would do with the same cation. Inorganic nomenclature prefers cations to be written first.

$$\ce{NaC2H3O2}$$

Is basically the same except for saying ‘I don’t care how those seven atoms combine to form the anion, all I care for is what’s in there.’

$$\ce{CH3COONa}$$

This one stresses a more organic-chemical point of view where it’s relevant where the cation is actually bound to within the molecule. Oftentimes, organic chemists would even write structural formulae with a bond between oxygen and sodium as if it were hydrogen. The reasoning behind this is ‘I don’t care if the structure ends up being a salt, all I need to know is that the sodium somehow connects to the carboxyl group.’

Note that you can combine the first’s and the third’s idea to give $\ce{NaOOCCH3}$ which works, but is a lot less used than either of them.

$$\ce{C2H3NaO2}$$

This is the Beilstein-type lookup formula. You just know the elemental composition of your compound and now want to look it up — you can’t know whether it’s sodium acetate or sodium hydroxyethanalate (if that name is even correct). Or maybe you just don’t care. The reasoning behind this is $\ce{C}$ first, $\ce{H}$ second, the remaining elements following in alphabetic order.

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Finally, there are also shortened formulae. The most common (the one I actually use most) would be $\ce{NaOAc}$. Here, $\ce{Ac}$ is an abbreviation for $\ce{H3C-C=O}$ where whatever follows or precedes is bound to the carbonyl carbon. Note that this formula is not considered standard, and would need to be included in a list of abbreviations or defined otherwise if you decide to use it.