Hydrate Compounds

    Simple hydrates are ionic compounds which have a name based on an anhydrous compound.  They are recognized by the presence of zH2O as a part of the formula.  Note that the "·" is read "dot" and is placed above the line in the formula. 

        MnXy·zH2O

The format for the name of this kind of compound has the word hydrate with a Greek prefix to indicate the number of waters of hydration as part of the name:

Anhydrous Compound Hydrate
   BaCl2 BaCl2·2H2O
barium chloride barium chloride dihydrate
  
CuSO4 CuSO4·5H2O
copper(II) sulfate copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate
cupric sulfate cupric sulfate pentahydrate
 
Co(NO3)2 Co(NO3)2·6H2O
cobalt(II) nitrate cobalt(II) nitrate hexahydrate

This Power Point Show has more examples of Hydrate compounds.